Period of Peace: Rewritten
by deadnoble
Summary: (Warning: Contains original characters created by the author) After a crisis is solved, some evil organization arises and interrupts the short-lived peace. The Dexholders never seem to be able to escape this cycle; this time, another threat interrupts their happy reunion. Can they survive? Takes place after Team Plasma's downfall
1. The first prologue

**Viridian City Gym (10:00)**

It had been a long time. An extremely long time since he felt it – the mad rush of adrenaline, the loud, rapid beating of his heart, the feelings of excitement and happiness experienced during the heat of a tough battle. It was the feeling he had when he was battling a mighty trainer who possessed battling capabilities that rivaled, or were even greater than his own.

It was only this morning when the challenger appeared at the Gym and demanded a six on six battle which Green accepted. Although he did not underestimate his opponent, he was greatly surprised by the strength his opponent's Pokemon displayed and quickly decided that the challenger was a great trainer who was capable of matching himself. They had been battling for nearly an hour, and both were down to their last two Pokemon.

Not good. Even though a few powerful strikes from his Scizor would be more than enough to take out his opponent's Banette, the Marionette Pokemon's amazing speed allowed it to evade all of Scizor's attacks. The Viridian Gym Leader gritted his teeth as he watched the Banette ambush his Scizor and disappear into the shadows.

It hid itself well, completely hiding itself from its opponents. It then emerged from the dark and attacked, and hid in the shadows again. Slowly but surely, the ghost type Pokemon chipped away at Scizor's health. Green had experienced such 'guerilla tactics' during his fight with Agatha, and thought hard to find a method to counter his opponent's strategy while his Scizor endured the numerous assaults.

Green's Alakazam, Arcanine, Ninetales and Exeggutor watched the exchange between the two trainers and their Pokemon worriedly.

**One Island (10:05)**

Silver closed the book he finished reading. Sitting on his bed, he glanced through the window in his room. Snow descended from the sky in great quantities and formed a thick, white sheet that covered the earth. He wondered if the tracks he and his Pokemon left were still there.

He had already exhausted his Pokemon training in the freezing weather and was tired reading. The Proteam Omega show didn't start until two in the afternoon, and Blue said that she was going to Celadon City. He was alone and had nothing to do, and was feeling quite bored.

After the Arceus incident, Silver trained under Lance and Pryce until they felt that he had learnt all he could from them. Sometime later, Silver was told to go to Unova with the other Dexholders to assist Black. When the crisis was resolved, Blue invited Silver to live with her family on One Island. At first, Silver was reluctant as he felt that doing so would be intruding Blue's family life, but she insisted that her 'little brother' live with her family. Her parents didn't mind Silver living with them – in fact they liked the boy and were grateful to him for helping their daughter.

**Viridian City Gym (10:45)**

Green was overwhelmed by the exhaustion of the battle and his legs couldn't support his wavering body, forcing him to sit down. He breathed rapidly and quickly, his chest quickly expanding and contracting. Beads of sweat were evident on his face, and his clothes were drenched by the very same liquid. His eyes were heavy, and he felt slightly dizzy. Although the hard-fought match ended in a draw, Green felt that he was the weaker trainer and had struggled in the battle more than his opponent.

Interestingly enough, his challenger didn't ask for a Gym Badge, and left before Green could give him the item. The strange act made Green question the challenger's motives.

Despite his dizziness and exhaustion, Green couldn't help but smile. He fully and sincerely enjoyed the match as it was actually a proper challenge to him. It was just as fun as battling Red, except that this was someone he didn't know, so he didn't know what to expect, and that added to the suspense.

Using the last of his strength, he staggered over to the recovery machine, supported by his Ninetales and placed the six Pokeballs that contained his powerful and trusted partners in the machine, allowing his Pokemon to heal.

"Take a good rest," he said to them. He then had his Alakazam Teleport him back to his house in New Bark Town. It was snowing in Kanto and Johto, and Green was unable and unwilling to walk through the thick snow back home in his current worn out state.

**Pallet Town (10:50)**

No, he wasn't in the living room. Was he even in the house? Blue really hoped that she didn't come all the way just for nothing.

Blue was feeling bored that particular day, so she decided to spend the day shopping, since she had some money to burn after beating a number of trainers on the seven islands. There was a sale at the Celadon Department Store, so she dragged Yellow along and went on a shopping spree.

After she spent time in the mall and temporarily stored her many shopping bags at Yellow's house, she still had plenty of time on her hands – not that she was in a rush to do anything. She decided to go and visit Green. She knew that Green wasn't particularly glad to see her, but since when did she care?

Perhaps he was upstairs. Blue walked up the stairs and heard the sound of steady, running water. Ah, so he was taking a shower. For some reason, Blue wanted to play a trick on him, like always. Perhaps she simply enjoyed watching his reaction. What could she do? She certainly couldn't just walk in there – that was way over the line.

That didn't really matter because she thought of something else.

**5 minutes later**

'_A little nap wouldn't hurt. Arcanine, Ninetales and Exeggutor will take care of the Gym. I'll just go back some time later,'_ Green thought, yawning as he returned to his room. His shower was refreshing, but Green was still feeling tired. He took a few steps into his bed room when his closet doors were suddenly flung open and someone/something sprang out from inside, shouting something.

Long story short, Blue gave him QUITE a scare. Green's reaction was a VERY loud shout.

Seconds later, Blue was rolling on the floor laughing while Green was glaring at her, doing his best to keep his anger in check. Part of – no, every single bit of Green wanted to go berserk and strangle her.

"What in Arceus' name are you doing here, Blue?" Green barely managed to not raise his voice, but the way he said the sentence was cold and uninviting, and there was an extremely obvious hint of anger.

"I came all the way from One Island to visit you, you're not even the slightest happy?" Blue asked teasingly.

"Oh yes, I'm just overjoyed to see you hiding in my closet and ambushing me."

"Sarcastic, aren't you?"

**Mount Silver (13:15)**

Mt. Silver has always been a harsh place: the climb up the mountain was definitely no walk in the park, and the area was littered with huge numbers of wild Pokemon. Without experience as a Pokemon trainer, adequate knowledge or reliable Pokemon companions, there was little to no chance of survival.

However, when winter approached, things were much, much worse.

The snow that covered the mountain made the hike extremely difficult, if not impossible. Also, the weather was not something to joke about: snowstorms frequented the mountains from time to time. The temperature was freezing, and the sky was dark, making it hard to navigate the mountains.

Only a few brave and strong trainers dared to visit the mountains, even less dared to frequent them, and by far only two were galling (or mad) enough to spend the winter there training. Of course, they mostly trained indoors, like they were doing right now.

Red leaned against a wall and watched Black face a group of eight wild Pokemon. After the Unova crisis, Red accepted Black's request, which was to train him. Therefore, Red brought the boy to Mt. Silver. Even now he could still remember the day they arrived at the foot of the mountain.

**Flashback**

"Here we are, Black. This is Mt. Silver, my favourite training spot," Red told Black as both trainers stood at the very foot of the mountain. Snow had blanketed the mountain and its surroundings in white, and the two trainers' every step left a new footprint behind them. 'Smoke' left their mouth every time they exhaled.

"Wow, certainly seems dangerous," Black commented, taking in the view.

"Black," the Battler turned to his companion with a stern look on his face. "This is one of the most dangerous places in Johto. Be careful up there, there are no guarantees."

"No worries senior, I'll be very cautious. I won't disappoint you," Black said with a confident grin. The two trainers then proceeded to climb the mountain…

**End of Flashback**

A Steelix, two Larvitar, a Pupitar, three Sneasel and a Misdreavus. Black quickly made a few calculations in his head before releasing Warr, Musha, Carra and Tula to battle the wild Pokemon. His Pokemon quickly forced their adversaries together, allowing Tula to trap the wild Pokemon with an electroweb. Now that his different targets could not escape and were bunched together, Black released his last Pokemon.

"Go, Boar! Blast Burn!" Boar inhaled deeply and let loose a powerful flame that engulfed the wild Pokemon and caused them to faint immediately. Black stood still for a few seconds before he started jumping and pumping his fist, yelling in joy in the process.

"W – We did it! We finally mastered the ultimate attack!" Black cheered and celebrated with his Pokemon. He looked as happy as if he won the lottery.

"Good job, Black. Looks like you've finally managed to master Blast Burn. Very impressive work," Red commented, giving Black a thumb up. Black turned to face him and took a deep breath.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH, SENIOR!" Black thanked loudly and bowed, causing Red to wince and cover his ears. "Senior Red, not only did you and everyone else save us during the crisis in Unova, you also brought me here to train. Thanks to that, my Pokemon have gotten so much stronger, and I learned a lot about battling. You even taught me an incredibly powerful attack I would never be able to teach my Pokemon on my own! Now I'm one big step closer to my dream, thanks to you senior! "

"It's nothing. It's only right for the senior Dexholder to pass on his knowledge to his juniors, and it's a trainer's duty to help combat evil forces. Besides, it was your hard work that enabled you to learn the ultimate attack. I hardly did anything," Red replied.

"By the way senior, it took us five days to learn Blast Burn; how many did it take for your Venasaur to learn Frenzy Plant?" Black asked.

"Um... less than a day," Red answered. Black's expression upon hearing the information was a mixture of awe and shock. He tried to say something, but what came out from his mouth were incoherent stutters.

"Calm down, Black. The reason why my Pokemon learned it quickly was because we had the actual guardian to teach us when we were learning the ultimate attack. The training you went through was devised by me, which isn't as effective as the real thing, and we didn't use the proper equipment, so it was much harder for your Emboar to learn Blast Burn. It took Gold and Crystal a month to learn their ultimate moves, so five days is a very good job," Red said, hoping to calm Black down.

**Pastoria City (13:20)**

"I've just sent him our newly completed report. Hopefully the old man's going to be satisfied with it," Sapphire said, stretching her arms and yawning. "Just one week left, and we'll be done with our work!"

"Even though we're not as skilled as professionals like senior Crystal or missy, I think that we've been doing a good job this time," Diamond commented.

"Ha, and all the credit goes to the great Gold who overworked and exhausted himself!" Gold announced proudly. "And now I must take a rest to regain my energy."

"Ya worked the least and did the worst out of us four! You of all people don't have the right to say anything, let alone rest!" Sapphire snapped. Before Gold could make a comeback, he was interrupted by Pearl entering the house and announcing his return.

"I've bought us each a boxed lunch! Come and get it," Pearl said as he took four boxed lunches and four pairs of chopsticks from a shopping bag and placed them on a table. Gold, Sapphire and Diamond thanked him before the four began their meal.

Due to Crystal, Emerald and Platinum being occupied, Professor Oak had to find someone to substitute for them. Therefore Gold (despite his protests), Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl were picked to fill in for the three and help the professor with his research. Their work required them to investigate the Pokemon in the Great Marsh, and since field work was involved, the four had rented a house in Pastoria City and were staying there.

The working atmosphere was friendly and everyday was filled with banter and laughter.

**Nimbassa City (18:30)**

Ruby sipped his drink and closed his eyes to savor the wonderful mixture of different, yet beautifully combined tastes. He had requested the waiter to use a few berries he had chosen to create the Berry Juice he was currently enjoying.

He decided that delicious food and drinks tasted even better after a day of hard work.

"Senior Ruby, thanks again for helping me with my work," White who was sitting opposite him said, gaining his attention.

"It's nothing, I didn't do that much," Ruby replied. "The work's interesting and fun, so it benefits me as well."

"I'm glad to hear that. I hope you found the pay alright?"

"Of course it is! You're too generous, White."

After the Team Plasma crisis was over, Ruby planned to stay behind and journey around the Unova region. Not long later, however, the coordinator was shocked to find that he was low on cash. Perhaps it was because he had spent too much money living in luxurious hotels and for his contests, but whatever the reason it was, he knew that if he didn't start gaining some money soon, he wouldn't be able to pay for the hotel fees and would be forced to camp outside.

And getting dirty meant the end of the world for Ruby.

Due to her creative mind, high management abilities and practical planning, as well as a good reputation, White's agency was not only involved in numerous films (she didn't just supply actors, she sometimes acted as the assistant director on several occasions) as well as the Pokemon Musical Studio, the BW agency was also involved in numerous things related to the newly constructed PokeStar Movie Studio.

Sadly, the number of workers in the BW agency was very small, and it meant that White, being the most important and adept member had a lot to do. She was getting tired, and decided to hire somebody to be her assistant and help her with her work. Two days later, Ruby caught sight of a certain advertisement with the words 'hiring' and 'BW agency' on it.

Senior Dexholder ended up working for the junior Dexholder. It was a happy partnership, for the two had quite a lot in common and became fast, good friends.

**? (20:00)**

"Thank you for your valuable aid, you three helped us a good deal. There should be a boat at the harbor which will take you three to Vermillion City. Please give Professor Oak my regards when you see him."

"No, it's our pleasure. It was an interesting and enjoyable experience to work here, I never thought we'd be able to set foot on one of the world's most important research facilities," Crystal replied.

"Yes, spending our time here allowed us to learn a lot. The knowledge we gained will be useful for the future. Thank very much for spending your valuable time on us, Professor Jovi," Platinum said, bowing. By professor, Platinum was referring to the woman who stood in front of them. Said professor wore a white lab coat, had waist-length, light blue hair and was at her late twenties.

"Yes, you've been taking care of us since the day we came here. You're far too kind, Professor Jovi," Crystal added, bowing as well.

"And you two are far too polite. I hope that we can cooperate in the future," Jovi replied.

"Our thoughts exactly, we hope to see you again. Well, we'll be leaving then," Crystal said.

"Hold on a moment, senior. Where's senior Emerald?" Platinum asked, looking around. Said boy was nowhere to be found.

"Sorry for the wait, I'm here," Emerald panted, running to join Crystal and Platinum. "I left behind some notes that I wanted to take with me, so I had to go back and get them," Emerald waved a folder to prove his point.

"Alright then, let's get a move on." As the three Dexholders left the building, Emerald stuffed the file into his bag. The file contained few sheets of paper, and the piece of paper on the top had the words 'Pokemon Research Institute' printed on it.


	2. The second prologue

**Author's Note: First of all, thanks for reading. There are a few thing I'd like to say: The Professor Jovi is/was actually the little girl from Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness, I just thought that she'd fit in the story as an adult. The 'crisis' in the summary refers to the different things the Dexholders have to face in the manga, not something in a fanfic. Finally, updates are slow as I'm normally quite busy. Well, enjoy.**

**? (12:00)**

Since when did he fall asleep? He checked his watch and was surprised to find out that he had been asleep for the past two hours. The book his new friend gave him, titled 'Normal Type Pokemon in Hoenn' rested on his lap. He removed his glasses and wiped the lens, and looked around after he had re-equipped the item.

Everything was the same as two hours ago: Bianca was still engaged in a conversation with Wally, who was in the seat next to hers. Skyla was still concentrated on flying her jet. He still couldn't see anything outside apart from the clouds and the blue sky. And he still wasn't used to Bianca's new, fashionable appearance.

Cheren picked up his book and continued reading. He tried his best to ignore Bianca who was describing to Wally a prank she and Black pulled on him when they were kids.

"Attention, this is your captain speaking. We'll be landing soon, so please fasten your seatbelts and do not leave your seat," Skyla announced a while later. Cheren placed a bookmark on the page he was reading, clamped the book shut and shoved it into his bag.

"In case you forget, this plane is capable of landing on water, which is what's going to happen, so please don't panic!" Skyla announced.

'_Right, she did mention that,'_ Cheren thought. He looked out of the window and watched the moving scenery, patiently waiting for the plane to land. After the aircraft landed, it cut across the blue sea for a minute or so. It then stopped, and the hatch opened.

"Just in time," Skyla said, pointing at a motorboat that was approaching the plane. "That'll take you to the Pokemon Research Institute, which is that huge island over there. Please don't leave anything behind!"

"Thank you very much for the ride," Wally, Cheren and Bianca thanked her in unison. Bearing their luggage, they boarded the motorboat which took them to their destination.

**Viridian City (13:00)**

It was another normal winter day for Yellow: the town was quiet and everything was covered in white. It was freezing outside. She placed the cup she drank from on the table next to her bed and looked outside.

'_Perhaps I can go for a walk later,'_ she thought.

Yellow usually spent a portion of the day wrapped in a blanket reading, a warm cup of hot chocolate seated within her reach, and when she felt like it, she'd go out to Viridian Forest for a walk, and sometimes she'd just find somewhere to sit and sketch a picture of the winter scenery. When she went for her walks, her choice of fashion would be: a tuque worn on her head, a scarf around her neck, a pair of yellow earmuffs covering her ears, a thick jacket, a pair of gloves and winter boots.

She was still thinking about whether or not she should go out for a stroll in the snow when her phone rang, causing her to jolt in surprise.

"Hello? Blue, is that you?" Yellow asked.

"Yeah, there's something I have to share with everyone," Blue replied.

"What is it? It's nothing too serious, is it?" Yellow asked. She was half curious half worried.

"I found a fun and engaging activity for all of us to do, so I signed us all up. It's been quite some time since we've all met, so I thought it'd be nice for us to meet up and have some fun together," Blue cheerfully answered. Yellow gulped. Half the time her 'fun and engaging activities' landed everyone in awkward situations, incidents which Blue used as blackmail material.

"What is this activity you're talking about?" Yellow asked.

"I sent you an email containing the details. Why don't you take a look for yourself?" Yellow turned on her computer, accessed her mailbox and quickly read through the email.

It turned out that the activity was some kind of training program of some sort. Yellow was somewhat relived that the activity wasn't some strange game Blue suddenly thought of, but she was also puzzled why Blue would want everyone to join a training program of all things. The program was set to begin sometime next week, the location was at a place called the Pokemon Research Institute, somewhere Yellow had never even heard of. An entrance fee of 20000 Poke had to be paid, and the duration of the course was for….

"2 years! That's way too long!" Yellow couldn't help but shout in bewilderment.

"So, what do you think? It's quite interesting, isn't it?" Blue asked her tone unchanging. The length of the course obviously wasn't too much of an issue to her.

"I'm sorry Blue, but this is just unacceptable. Nobody would sign up for a course this long! And look at the entry fee – it's just way too much," Yellow protested.

"Yeah, but won't it be fun to see everyone again and have fun together? Besides, everyone's already been signed up," Blue said, still maintaining her cheerful tone.

"Surely everyone else won't be willing to do the training course! Green has his Gym Leader duties, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum are busy as well doing research, and many others such as Gold or Red surely will not be willing to go on the training course!" Yellow reasoned.

"Actually, in the end it doesn't even matter if they want to come or not." Blue said the last sentence so ominously and darkly it sent shivers down Yellow's spine.

"H-how are you going to convince them?" Yellow asked. Part of her didn't want to know the answer.

"My dear Yellow, you really don't want to know, trust me," Blue whispered. She let the sentence hang in midair for a few seconds before she started laughing.

"I'm not going to do anything over the top, don't worry!" Blue said while she laughed. "But I'm serious about everyone participating in the program. I mean, I went through all that trouble of getting everyone signed up!"

"If that's the case, I guess that I can't do anything about it," Yellow sighed. "Alright, I'll go along with your plans."

"Thanks Yellow. Just follow the steps I sent you in the email to pay the 20k Poke and all will be fine. Well, I still have to call everyone else, so bye for now!" With that, Blue hung up.

**Nimbassa City (13:05)**

"Senior Ruby, can you tell me a bit about the other Dexholders? I'd like to know more about them," White asked.

"Sure. Let's see… we'll start with senior Red, the Battler. As you know, he's the Kanto Champion and probably the strongest one among us. Then there's senior Green, the Trainer. He's the Viridian City Gym Leader and 2nd place in the Kanto Pokemon League. He's the only one who can match Red in battle. And then there's senior Blue, the Evolver. She's 3rd place in the Kanto Pokemon League. She doesn't have any official title, but she has a… special 'status' among us Dexholders." Ruby voiced the last line in a funny tone.

"What do you mean by that?" White asked, puzzled.

"Everyone's scared of her, even Red and Green." Seeing White's curious expression, Ruby continued. "She's a very unpredictable person. She always come up with some strange idea and gets everyone to join in, and once she decides on something, no one can change her mind. She just suddenly calls you and tells you that she's planned something and you can't back out. I'm sure that even you will experience this sooner or later."

"I'm not looking forward to that."

**Pallet Town (13:07)**

"So, you're telling me that you signed me, as well as everyone else up for some two year long training course that costs around 20k without our consent? And it begins next week?" Green asked. He spoke slowly and it was clear that he was indignant. Even though Blue wasn't speaking to him face to face, she could imagine his current expression.

Green had no Gym Match reservations and was doing some work at his home. He was having a decent day until when Blue phoned him, and in a short moment everything changed.

"That's that in a nutshell," Blue replied. "It's a good thing that you know what I'm saying."

"WHY, WHY do I want to STRANGLE you EVERY time I see or hear from you?" Green had suddenly raised his voice and was yelling. Even Silver who was sitting some distance away from Blue could hear his voice. The Evolver wasn't fazed at all despite the loud voice coming from her Pokegear, which she simply placed some distance away from her ear.

"Oh, how sweet of you," Blue said teasingly. Green twitched.

"Cancel my application. Right now," Green commanded.

"No." That was Blue's simple answer.

Green really wasn't sure if he could maintain his sanity any longer. He had at some point considered living the rest of his life as a recluse- all just to run away from Blue.

"Look, we both know that I'm definitely able to convince the rest of the group to join the program. It'd make both of us look bad if only you didn't join," Blue said.

"I don't care, and I have my Gym duties."

"Like hell! You always leave your Pokemon in the Gym and use the 3D hologram image. You don't even need to go there."

"Well, you're mistaken, I…"

**After 5 minutes of a heated argument**

"Thanks Green, I knew you'd understand. Bye!" Blue hung up. Green could no longer contain his anger, but he was sensible enough not to start destroying his furniture. Instead he put on a thick green jacket, took Charizard's Pokeball and quickly walked to an empty, open area on Route 1.

"Blast Burn!"

**Mount Silver (13:12)**

"What is it, Blue?" Red asked, frowning. Black noticed that his senior didn't look happy when he saw that it was Blue who called him.

"Hey, are you still with that other Dexholder? You know, the really loud boy called Black?"

"Yeah, we've been training together on Mount Silver for the entire time."

"Perfect! Can you use the speaker? I need to talk to the two of you about something." Red did as he was told and motioned for Black to participate in the conversation.

"Good afternoon, Senior Blue!" Black greeted.

"Good afternoon, Black. Alright you two, listen closely. I signed up all of us Dexholders, the two of you included for something very fun and appealing," Blue said.

"Oh, for Arceus' sake, what is it this time?" Red asked, irritated.

"It's a training program I happened to come across."

"Training? But Senior Red is the Champion, and I'm being trained by the strongest trainer in Kanto. Why'd we need to attend some random training course?" Black asked, puzzled.

"Because it'll be a fun reunion with everyone around, and it's actually something useful," Blue explained.

"Fine, fine. So, what do I need to know about the training program?" Red asked. He was obviously annoyed by Blue's antics.

"Good to see that at least someone's willing to cooperate! Well, the training program starts next week, requires a 20000 poke entry fee and the whole course lasts two years long," Blue answered cheerfully.

"Two years long and 20000 poke entry fee? What the fuck is wrong with the program!" Black yelled. His loud noise caused Red and Blue to wince and cover their ears, Blue dropped her phone in the progress.

"Stop yelling! You'll burst my eardrums," Blue scolded. "Anyway, I already signed you two up for the course, so there's no use complaining about it. I won't take anything but 'yes' for an answer," Blue voiced the sentence dangerously.

"Okay, okay, I give up. We'll join the course, right Black?" Black could see that Red was mouthing the words 'say yes' to him. Black felt bad if he disobeyed Red, so he unwillingly agreed to join the program.

"Thank you! I'll send you the details, so just follow the instructions and everything will be fine. See you soon!" Blue said before hanging up.

"What the heck, Senior Red? Are we just going to take this lying down?" Black asked furiously.

"Black, what must you never do when you're standing in quicksand?"

"Huh? Uh... never ever struggle because you'll sink even faster?" Black did not understand the meaning to Red's question.

"That's right. Just remember this: Blue's as bad as quicksand. If you struggle, it turns from bad to worse," Red sighed.

**?**** (13:17)**

"Did you say that the program you signed us up for is to take place in the Pokemon Research Institute? What a coincidence! We have just left that place and are on a boat headed for Kanto!" Platinum said.

"Oh? Interesting, so you actually know about that place. Well? What do you think?" Blue asked.

"I'm happy to go back there, but the training program seems to be too long. I mean, two years is a lot of time," Crystal said. She was thinking hard about the matter.

"I don't think it'll really matter to you. After all, you spend your entire life doing research work, I'm willing to bet that you'll spend most of the next two years working!" Blue accused.

"Haha, you can't really argue with that, Crys," Emerald said before Crystal could say anything in defense. "Maybe the training program will be a good vacation for all of us."

"So you're okay with the training program, Emerald?" Blue asked.

"Yeah, it sounds fun, and we get to see everyone else! It's great," Emerald replied.

"I'm in favour with the training program as well," Platinum said.

"I suppose it'll be alright if I join the program, since it's going to be productive, but will Professor Oak be alright with the three of us not helping with his work?" Crystal asked.

"No worries, I already called him, and he said that it's alright. So, I'll see you three next week, yeah? Remember to pay the entrance fee!"

"Next time, just ask for our consent before signing us up for these things,"Crystals said.

Blue quickly apologized before she hung up.

**Pastoria City (13:21)**

"Even though the training program may help develop our skills as a Pokemon trainer, it's still way too long. I'm sorry, Blue, but I don't think we can agree to joining the training program," Diamond said.

"Yeah, we've got stuff planned for next year, like winning the Grand Pix at Jubilife City!" Pearl added.

"Or going to Unova and starting a new journey!" Sapphire added as well.

Blue was feeling impatient that the four weren't willing to follow her plans. Even though she was confident that she was able to persuade/force them to join in the end, she wasn't in the mood to do so. She decided to resort to extreme methods.

"Gold, can you please turn off the speaker? We need to talk in private," Blue said.

"What do you want?" Gold asked, annoyed. He walked away from Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl, speaker turned off and Pokegear glued to his ear, until he was out of earshot.

"...What are they talking about?" Diamond asked.

"Who knows?" Pearl replied.

"Hey guys," Gold addressed the three after he finished his conversation with Blue (the speaker was turned on again). For some reason, they could see that the Breeder had been doing a great deal of sweating, and the drops of sweat continued to slide down his face. "I gave it a thought, and I think it's a great idea. Let's do the training program!"

"He sure changed fast!" Sapphire commented in surprise. Gold then proceeded to persuade them with a bunch of unconvincing reasons, unconvincing because they were words no one would expect to come out from his mouth (Blue couldn't help laughing), but Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl agreed to join the training program. It was because they quickly realized that Blue blackmailed Gold to get the four of them to join the training program, and they pitied their senior.

**Nimbassa City (13:32)**

"I can't believe it. How long did it take her to get us to say 'yes'?" White asked disbelievingly.

"Something around three minutes. I told you you'd experience this sooner or later," Ruby answered.

"Seriously, what if she interrupted one of my major projects just because she signed us up for some random program? We're lucky that the project we've been working on finishes today!"

"Oh well, at least this is actually something useful. The program may help you to improve your battling skills, so you should benefit from it."

"That's good and all, but isn't two years too long?"

"Yes, and unfortunately for me, I have another problem." White looked at him questioningly.

"I don't even have 20k. White, can you please lend me some money?"

**One Island (13:32)**

"As expected, sis managed to get everyone else to join the training program," Silver said. "But how did you come across the training program in the first place?"

"I just happened to see the advertisement and got interested, so I dialed the hotline and asked for more information."

"I see. So how do we get to the institute and when do we have to be there?" Silver asked.

"They kindly arranged for someone to pick us up at the Vermillion Harbor, and the training program begins a day after we arrive. However, they haven't sorted out the details yet. They said they'd call me immediately after they finalized the arrangements. I'll notify everyone else then," Blue answered.

"Alright, I understand. Sis, can you tell me more about the institute?"

"Apparently it's one of the world's most important research facilities. It takes something like two days to get there from Vermillion City by boat, which is the closest port to the institute. It's situated on a huge island somewhere away and the building is supposed to be quite big itself. You can ask Crystal, Emerald or Platinum about the details as they worked there before," Blue said.

"What did they think about the institute?"

"They kept saying how it was a great place with lots to learn and that the researchers there were nice people."

"Interesting," Silver replied.

**Extra Scene**

**Pastoria City (After Blue told Gold, Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl about the training program)**

"Geez, I just can't believe senior Blue," Sapphire mumbled.

"Yeah, this time she's gone too far. She really needs to consider other people's feelings before doing these things," Diamond agreed.

"Hey, have you seen senior Gold? I haven't seen him after the phone call," Pearl asked.

"He went to buy a punching bag and gloves. You see, he were feeling angry, so he put senior Blue's photo on the punching bag and is relieving his anger somewhere," Diamond answered.


	3. The third prologue

**Vermillion City (2:00)**

The whole of Vermillion City was covered in darkness, except for the bits of the city illuminated by the street lights. As there was no reason to be outside at the moment, no one was outside aside from a few policemen who patrolled around the city with their Pokemon.

And fifteen people who were unfortunate enough to be doing something at the Vermillion Harbor.

"Why, just why does it have to be at 2 in the morning? What's wrong with afternoon or nighttime?" Red complained.

"As I've been saying for the whole time, the guy in charge of the training program called me this morning and told me that whoever came to pick us up ran into some problems and got delayed. It just happened, ok?" Blue replied, annoyed.

"It takes two days to get to the institute, so at least we will have an opportunity to rest on the trip there," Platinum said.

"Someone's coming." Everyone looked at Silver's direction to see a young man who had blue hair and a laptop in one hand approached the group. Without saying a single word, he motioned for the Dexholders to follow him and led the group to a decently sized yacht. When asked if he was the one sent to take them to the Pokemon Research Institute, he nodded and gestured for the group get on.

"I don't know about you people, but I'm going straight to bed. I'll go downstairs and see how many rooms there are. We can decide who takes which one later," Gold said, yawning.

"I'll come with you," Black said. The two descended to the bottom floor and investigated the lower level of the ship. The others stayed where they were and waited.

"Sapphire, is something bothering you? You've been looking around quite restlessly for a while," Green asked.

"Those red patterns on the wall, on the ceiling and on the floor look unnatural," Sapphire stated while pointing at the many parts of the ship stained in big blotches of red.

"It is weird how someone would paint the inside of their boat red, and they did quite a bad job," Pearl commented.

"It doesn't smell like paint," Sapphire said after sniffing one of the red patches.

"Amazing! You can tell the difference just like that?" Yellow asked in surprise.

"Ah, but that's because she's been living the life of an **uncivilized barbarian** in the wild for a big part of her life, using primitive methods to get by everyda – OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! Sapphire you're breaking my arm!" Ruby was rolling on the floor in pain after Sapphire had let him go. He reacted badly when he noticed that he dirtied his clothes.

"Hmm… dunno, maybe the patches are dried up blood!" Emerald cheerfully joked.

"Emerald! That's such a disgusting idea," Crystal replied. She and a few others weren't amused by the idea of the stains being blood.

"But you have to admit, it really does look quite real," Blue said as she inspected the stains. "Certainly is a strange boat."

"Hey, check out the rooms downstairs some of them are really interesting," Gold called to the group as he emerged from the staircase, Black appearing seconds later behind him.

"Yeah, there are some blood splatters in every single room, quite creepy huh?" Black said.

"Like these?" Silver asked, pointing at one of the many red stains.

"Woah! Didn't notice that over there. Yeah, they're identical," Gold answered. "Just what is up with this boat? Some kind of bloody fight went on here or something?"

"But I can't find any evidence of a struggle," Platinum said, carefully scanning the area. "I sincerely doubt that those are really blood stains."

"Everyone," Diamond gained the group's attention. "I found this piece of paper lying on the table. It looks like a letter, should I read it out?"

"Sure man, go ahead," Pearl told him. Diamond took a deep breath and started reading.

To the reader,

Welcome aboard this cursed ship. You and whatever company you have with you are standing at the gates of death. I bid you a safe journey to the afterlife. Soon, your blood will decorate the boat, like that of many others. I'll start with the captain…

From the Reaper

The bottom right corner of the page was stained with blood-like red. Some of the Dexholders looked terrible uneasy, some were frightened and panicked while one or two of them were still calm.

"Oh no," Yellow gasped. "What have we gotten ourselves into? This is just –"

"Calm down. If something does happen, we all have the power to fight back. I strongly believe that the fifteen of us can put up a good fight if we have to," Green calmly stated.

"Someone sure is calm," Red commented. "But you're right, if anything comes our way, we'll just send 'em flying back to where they came from. Besides, we're not alone, so there's nothing to worry about," he said confidently.

Upon hearing their words, everyone more or less calmed down, and was convinced that everything would turn out fine and even if something went wrong, they'd still be safe because they had their Pokekmon with them.

"Shouldn't someone warn the captain? I mean, the letter did say that he was the first target, so I think we should at least tell him about it," White suggested.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the revolting, horrifying scream of a man who was seconds away from being murdered, a person who was wavering on the border of life and death echoed throughout the ship, disrupting the peace of the silent, dark night and greatly startling everyone on board. No one failed to miss it.

Green and Silver released their Scizor and Weavile, and quickly dashed to the control room which was where the frightful sound came from. Some of the others were screaming and panicking, some were trembling in fear and some were looking around nervously, Pokeball in hand.

"Guys, what happened to the captain? Is he alive?" Red asked when Silver and Green returned. Given the circumstances, everyone was glad to see them in one piece.

"No, he's done for. We searched, but we couldn't find traces of any sort, let alone the culprit," Green replied gravely. "And we couldn't really tell how he died as well, because…" The Viridian Gym Leader hesitated and looked away from the group, as if remembering a horrifying experience. Beads of cold sweat appeared on everyone's faces.

"Hey, don't finish halfway, it's even scarier. So, what happened to him?" Black asked.

'_Actually, I don't want to know,'_ Crystal thought.

"…We don't know what happened and we couldn't find the cause of death, because by the time we arrived there was no body. Nothing else aside from the guy's skeleton remained, and not even a single piece of flesh or a single speck of blood was attached to it," Silver answered.

…

"What the hell, Blue! I thought you signed us up for a training course, not some kind of boat ride with the reaper or something! How the hell did you get us into this mess?" Ruby, who had completely lost it, berated her in a panicked tone. The pain Sapphire inflicted on him had disappeared, and he wasn't worried about his clothing anymore.

'_Oh god…. I knew that something like this would be coming,' _Crystal thought as she trembled in terror. Needless to say, the others were also reacting dramatically, and the ship was in total chaos. After moments of shouting and panicking, everyone eventually became calm enough to talk and think.

"Right, so you guys said that the only thing left of our captain is a white skeleton, nothing else?" Blue asked. She was among the first to come back to her senses and did a good job pacifying the rest.

"That's right."

"Wow, how the hell can anyone perform such a clean kill? What on earth can do something like that?" Gold asked no one in particular.

"More importantly," Platinum said, "Shouldn't one of us be controlling the ship?"

"The controls were malfunctioning. Right now, the ship's headed for some faraway, unnamed island. We can't change the autopilot mode, which is unfortunate, but we won't sink, because the boat is capable of detecting and dodging obstacles, something I found out from the control room," Green replied.

"Anyone got any ideas how we'll find the murderer?" Black questioned.

"Let's search the ship. If the killer is a physical being, we should be able to find him. Even though this yacht's quite big, there can't be that many hiding places. Let's split into groups and look for him," Diamond suggested.

"And if we can't find anything, it means that it may by a supernatural being that took the captain's life away," Red added.

"S-supernatural being?"

"It's possible."

**After minutes of searching in vain**

"So it really was a supernatural being? If that's the case, we should stay in groups and stick together at all times. That way, if something does happen, more people can respond to it at the same time," Silver logically concluded.

"If we're to be with each other, we should also sleep in groups, right?" Red commented.

"It's too dark and risky to abandon the yacht, and the phone calls won't connect and messages couldn't be sent for some reason. I guess that's our only option," Emerald said.

In the end it was agreed that the male Dexholders would occupy one of the four rooms on the lower floor while the female Dexholders would occupy one of the other rooms (much to Gold's disappointment). After some long moments, the group finally decided to move to their rooms on the lower floor.

Unfortunately, the horrors hadn't finished yet.

There wasn't much space in the room with all the boys and their belongings, so Black decided to shove some of their things into the wardrobe sitting in the corner of the room. The moment he opened the wardrobe door, everyone happened to be looking at his direction, and they were all at an angle where they could see what was inside the wardrobe.

Inside was a skeleton that was, for some strange reason, smiling.

After Black slammed the wardrobe door shut, it took them only a few seconds to grab all of their things, dash out of the room and frantically hammer the door of the girls' room, doing all of this while shouting.

"What's the matter? We heard you guys screaming," Yellow asked worriedly as she opened the door. The boys all pleaded for her to let them in, so she stepped aside to allow entry. The boys explained what happened moments ago in their room to their female friends.

"Let me get this straight: you guys wanted to put something into the wardrobe so that there'd be more space, but for some reason, there was a smiling skeleton inside?" Crystal summarized. The boys nodded.

"I'm glad that there's nothing of that sort in our room," White said gratefully.

"Please don't tell us to go back; we've had way too much going on today. Please let us stay here," Pearl and Diamond begged in unison.

"We really don't want to go to the other two rooms just to get freaked out by something else," Gold added.

"…They really do look pitiable and exhausted. Why don't we allow them to stay for tonight? It'll also be safer this way," Platinum proposed.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt for them to stay here," Blue said after some thought.

With the additional people and baggage in the room, there was even less space, so no one was particularly comfortable. No one could go to bed after the extraordinary events that took place, but no one could think of anything to say, so there was an awkward silence in the air. The atmosphere was heavy.

An hour had gone by and nothing happened. Everyone was increasingly tired, and one by one they succumbed to the devils of sleep. Only a few were still awake, though they were struggling to.

'_Hopefully nothing else will happen tonight,' _Silver thought. _'Things have been quiet for the last hour, so maybe the peace will continue to last for the rest of the night.'_ He looked around the room and noticed that aside from him only Green, Pearl and Black were still awake. Green was staring at the door silently, Pearl was hurting himself to stay awake and Black was trying to contact someone with his Pokegear, but failed in the end.

Something slipped into the room, startling the four. They were about to release their Pokemon, but realized that what was slipped in was just an envelope. Pearl carefully approached the object, opened it and took out the letter.

"Pearl, read out the letter," Green commanded, Pokeball still in hand.

To the reader

Everything, every single detail up to now is just a prank devised by one of the brilliant scientists of the Pokemon Research Institute; in other words, me. The 'Reaper' is just a joke, and the captain is still alive; he's sitting in the control room, having fun on his laptop. You can contact people with your phone or Pokegear now as we restored the signal.

Have fun, and see you all in two days.

From Professor Sakata of the Pokemon Research Institute

Pearl threw the letter onto the floor in a fit of rage. Sure enough, the captain was sitting in the control room and using his laptop, as if nothing had happened. Pearl and Black had to be restrained from violence.

**Author's Note: For those who are wondering where the 'adventure' is, need not worry. It exists, it's just not here yet. Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for reading.**


	4. The final prologue

**Author's note: Sincerest apologies for the long, long hiatus – school was busy as hell, but now that it's the summer holidays, I can once again continue writing. Anyways, this chapter is about (more or less) all of the OCs (original characters) that will appear in the story. I apologize if it's difficult to keep up with the story due to the many original characters, but it will get easier to recognize them as the story goes on, I promise. **

**Yacht (4:00)**

Hidden in the darkness of the great, dark sky, the yacht sent by the Pokemon Research Institute to transport the Dexholders continued its steady voyage to its desired location. The fifteen Pokemon trainers had their energy drained from the previous prank and were sleeping soundly, and so the yacht was then void of noise, save the steady breathing of those who were asleep, as well as what little noise created by the yacht cutting its way through the thick, black sea, and the barely audible sounds of fingers pressing the buttons of a keyboard.

The young, blue-haired man known as the captain to the Dexholders was focused on the laptop in front of him. He was writing an email to someone on his computer, typing at an incredibly swift pace. Not too long later, he had finished his email and had hit the 'send' button.

**Pokemon Research Institute (4:05)**

Once Professor Jovi saw that it was time for her to take action, she got up and proceeded to leave the building. She looked behind her numerous times and walked around the building, taking a sharp turn here and there, or suddenly accelerating to mislead and throw off anyone who was following her, though she was sure that nobody was. It didn't hurt to play safe, and it was decent practice, so she insisted to go through her 'safety measures' every time she had to leave for a mission. Once she was satisfied, she left the building and hurried to the place she had in mind.

The island the research institute sat on was a massive one, but the research institute was the only building that was on the island. A huge, green forest formed a halo that enclosed the building within it, though there was a bit of land between the forest and the research institute. To the north of the forest were a few mountains, and aside from the mountains and the path that led to them, the rest of the area between the forest and the sea was a wide, sandy beach. Therefore, it one were to have a bird eye's view of the entire island, a chunk of grey could be seen on one side of the island that was the mountains, but that chunk of grey aside was a wide area of yellow which was the beach, and within that was a large circle of green which was the forest. And surrounded by the green was the great, towering Pokemon Research Institute.

Jovi navigated her way through the forest and made her way to the beach. She specifically chose this location because unlike the forest, it would be impossible to hide from her on the beach due to the lack of obstacles like the many trees that make up the forest. Jovi took out a small, cylindrical device from her pocket and, after switching it on returned it back to her pocket. The device was a heat sensor that would alert her if an organism, human or Pokemon was approaching her. She then phoned someone and, after exchanging a few lines to make sure that both she and the person she called were talking to the correct person but not an imposter, she smiled.

"Good morning, Professor Oak. My sincerest apologies to keep you waiting, I hope I haven't been long?"

**Professor Oak's Laboratory** **(4:35)**

"It's a pleasure to speak to you again, Professor Jovi. How can I help you?" Oak asked. He had been expecting her call, and was rather happy to hear the phone ring.

"First of all, I received an email from Set earlier. He wrote that he had successfully picked up the fifteen Dexholders and is now escorting them to the institute. He mentioned that everything went smoothly and so far, they had not run into any trouble," Jovi reported.

"Excellent! Truth to be told, at first I was worried that something might have happened to them which would prevent them from reaching the institute, but when I heard that Set was in charge of taking them there, all of my worries immediately disappeared. That young man is both capable and reliable, and I am willing to bet a Pokedex that he will get the fifteen Dexholders to the institute safely!" Oak answered.

"Thank you very much for thinking so highly of my brother professor, but please do not overestimate him. One of us will report to you when Set has completed his mission of escorting the Dexholders. I must say, you and all the other professors really have chosen very good trainers to be Dexholders. Set mentioned that he could see unlimited potential in each of them – in fact, he was confident that every single one of them would be able to develop into great, elite trainers, though I'm sure that a few of them are already among the elite," Jovi replied.

"Hmph! Whether or not they are capable of unleashing their full potential depends on them. Of course, it will be much easier under the guidance of a good teacher, so I'm counting on you and your colleagues to train them."

"Those fifteen children are humanity's hope. If they manage to fully develop, we will finally have a chance of winning the war. Anyways, let's set aside this issue for now. Our group has managed to gather some new information during our recent raids, including some data and new specimens. We'd like your help in interpretation and research, so one of us will deliver our newly acquired data, as well as ten test subjects to you," Jovi said.

"Very good, and when should I expect the delivery to arrive?"

"In exactly seven days. A young man called Riley will be responsible for the delivery, and you will be able to recognize him easily: he is clad in blue, and has a Lucario and Riolu with him all the time. He will arrive at your laboratory at three in the morning, and will knock twice, then thrice, then once, then twice again. Pease do not worry about him identifying you, professor – just like his Lucario, he possesses the ability to read the aura emitted from living beings," Jovi explained.

"Okay, I understand. Is there anything else I should know about?" Oak asked.

"No, there isn't. We'll update you if we receive any new information. Who knows, we might get something from tonight's operation. At any rate, I'll call you again if we do discover something." After the two exchanged pleasantries, Jovi cut the call.

'_Crystal, Emerald, Platinum… I'm sorry but we have to keep the truth a secret from you all until the time is right. We'll tell you everything in the future, but for now, just enjoy the days with your friends happily,'_ Jovi thought.

**? (4:45)**

It was a desolate place. The area had no trees, no water, no signs of life, no anything. It was just a huge stretch of barren land, a very lonely place indeed. Occasionally a few Flying Type Pokemon flew by, but other than that there was no life, which was why it was a location not known to many.

One could not find a better location to engage in activities not meant for the eyes of the public.

An unknown facility sat somewhere on the stretch of 'dead' land. No one knew what purpose the building served, let alone its existence. Very rarely some random person would catch sight of the building, but every time he or she would not investigate any further and leave the premises, because the structure gave people a bad, suspicious feeling. The only people who knew what went on inside the walls of the structure were the very people who worked inside it.

Today however would be the first time someone from the 'outside' would set foot in the building. Two people were slowly approaching the building, and once they were a certain distance from the building, one of them signaled for the other to stop.

"That's good enough. If we get any closer, we might be detected by the sensors. We'll just wait here and let Set do his magic," one of the two said.

"In that case, I'll message Set and let him know that we've arrived," the other person said, quickly doing the mentioned action. It literally took him a few seconds to receive a reply from Set, which said that he (Set) would begin the operation and asked for his two comrades to wait patiently.

**Yacht (4:47)**

Set's fingers were flying all over the place. He was intensely focused on the computers in front of him: his eyes had become fierce, like that of a hungry beast's. His teeth were clenched, his muscles were tensed.

Set was easily one of the world's greatest hackers. Because a huge part of his life was reliant on his computer skills, he had trained himself quite rigorously in doing anything related to the use of a computer, and had even learnt to use multiple computers at the same time. 'Two heads are better than one', and in his case, two computers were better than one, which was why he was using two computers at the same time when he was hacking.

His computer abilities made him a valuable asset to his partners. Not only could he tap into his enemy's system and manipulate it to his favor, he was also able to use his computer for other things such as stealing data and wreck havoc.

He didn't have to waste any time worrying whether his enemies would attack his ship, because a few of his Pokemon were circling around the yacht, prepared to alert him and fend off any attempts of an attack.

**? (4:48)**

"This may take some time. Want some snacks, Sakata?" One of the two said, handing his comrade a pack of opened snacks. The person known as Sakata was a man in his late-twenties. He had black hair and a pair of black-framed glasses. He wore a green jacket over a black long sleeved T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, which he claimed were his favourite clothes.

"Thanks," Sakata said, dipping his hand into the packet and grabbing a handful of food. Sakata had taken out a book and was reading while chewing on his snacks, and the two sat down, waiting without any conversation, Sakata reading his book and occasionally reaching for a handful of snacks, and his companion stared at the suspicious building in front of them while eating.

"You're uncharacteristically silent today, Sakata. Is something bothering you?" Sakata's comrade asked after a while. Sakata stared at his book for a few more seconds before he sighed and shut his book.

"I'm somewhat worried about the Dexholders that are coming tomorrow," Sakata answered truthfully. "Key, what do you think about them?"

Sakata's companion, now known as Key thought about the question. Key was probably a year or two younger than Sakata. He had chestnut-coloured hair, and was a little taller than his companion.

"If they were chosen to fulfill the role of a Dexholder, they've got to be decent, right? And according to one of Set's earlier messages, he said that he could see potential in them. They probably got the skills to pay the bills," Key answered.

"What you say makes sense, and I don't doubt their growth, nor do I doubt their current strength. Truth to be told, I challenged one of the Dexholders previously – it was the Gym Leader called Green. I battled at a much lower level than my usual standard, though I performed at a higher level than him, but in the end he managed to tie with me. That's why I'm fully aware of how strong those Dexholders are, and how strong they can be in the future," Sakata said.

"How scary, but if that's the case then what are you worrying about?"

"According to the information Professor Oak shared with us, none of the fifteen had the courage to fatally injure their adversaries. All of them are way too kind, way too soft. Don't get me wrong – I'm not saying that kindness is a bad thing, but their enemies – our enemies aren't as kind as they are. They might try to take advantage of the Dexholders' kindness," Sakata explained. "But there's another problem that's even more severe than this."

"Oh, and what is that?"

"I'm worried that the Dexholders will not be able to continue being who they are once they experience the death of their friends. I don't deny the fact that hardships help a person to grow, but If they become possessed by their anger and develop a lust of revenge and bloodshed, if they become warped and develop a twisted mindset, even if we win the war, in the end we would have lost something important," Sakata said.

"Well, it's still a bit too early to say anything. I suppose we'll find out after spending some time with them, and if we're lucky, we might win this war with no deaths – though I suppose that's impossible," Key replied. "Oh, I've got a message from Set. He says that he's hacked into their system and had already stolen their data, as well as disabled their sensors, messed up the security cameras and the like. He's ready to open the gates and let us in, so I suppose we should get started."

"Good, let's begin," Sakata said as he and Key advanced towards the building.

It took them quite some time, but the two would later exit the building having completed their objectives. The two released a Pokemon each to take them back to the Pokemon Research Institute, and neither of the two even received a scratch from the many enemies that lurked in the building; instead, every single one of their adversaries was utterly defeated. The building was never to be seen again, because Set made the building self-destruct, and the facility disintegrated in an explosion…

Unbeknownst to Set and Key, someone was watching them from the moment they left the building. The person watched as the two left the area, riding their Pokemon. Grinning, he too had his Pokemon take him away – arriving and leaving without anyone's notice.

**Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Just to sum up, the original characters in this chapter include Set, Key and Sakata. Jovi is a character from the Pokemon game Gale of Darkness, though she appears in the game as a child, unlike in this story where she appears as an adult. Whether the guy in the end of the chapter is an original character or not will be revealed in time. Once again, thanks for reading.**


	5. Everything begins here

**Author's Note: Firstly, thank you very much for reading. Forgive me for the slow update; I hadn't been able to find any time to continue the story. That aside, there won't be any new OCs for a while. All the new characters in the next chapters will be from different Pokemon games; which game the characters come from will be specified at the end of the chapter.**

Not much had happened in the two days that took the yacht to reach the Pokemon Research Institute. The whole journey was smooth without any problems or delays, and the yacht only stopped a few times at different port towns either to get food or refuel. Being stuck on a yacht, there really wasn't much the Dexholders could do physically.

Therefore, let us skip the waiting and fast forward to moments before the yacht arrived at the island where the research institute sits on.

**Yacht (1:30)**

Although it was already very late (technically, it was the next day), not all of the Dexholders were asleep.

Gold, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl and Black were sitting together, the five of them focused on a game console that each was holding. Their thumbs were all over the place as they keyed in different commands at a decent speed.

As the yacht was (predicted) to arrive at their destination around two in the morning, the five Dexholders decided that it was pointless to go to bed since they wouldn't get much sleep, so instead they killed time playing video games. Exactly like an hour ago, they were competing against each other in a multiplayer game.

At first, no one would say anything, so it was quite quiet for a while. Then the silence would be broken by grunts or mutters from the player who messed up, and small cheers or taunts from the player who had succeeded. This was then followed by protests and curses, as well as louder and more frequent cheers and taunts (and in one extreme case, one of the players attacked another player, which escalated into a small fight that led to the other three players mercilessly annihilating both of their characters). After a while the noise would die down again, and the cycle would repeat itself.

"HAH, I win!" Emerald declared proudly. The other four sighed, slightly disappointed with the result.

"Dude, stop spamming the same attack! It's no fun," Gold complained.

"Hey, anything works as long as you win! Or are you going to pull a Ruby and say something like _'spamming attacks isn't beautiful, you've got to have the perfect mixture, combos and harmony of attacks! That's beauty!'_ huh?" Emerald said, imitating Ruby.

"Oi, don't group me and that sissy kid together!" Gold replied. Diamond, Pearl and Black were too busy laughing at Emerald's decent imitation of Ruby to say anything.

"Well, then don't make up some stupid excuse when you lose," Emerald said. This managed to provoke Gold, and the two of them argued for a bit. Eventually, they stopped their bickering, and the five had another match.

And of course, Emerald kept spamming the same move when he had the chance.

"If you guys aren't paying attention, the three of us will destroy you just like what happened when you two were fighting earlier," Pearl warned as Gold and Emerald began another verbal war.

Ironically, Pearl was the first to lose that game.

**After a while…**

"Hey, it's already ten minutes past two, but we're still not there yet? Seriously, how much longer do we have to wait?" Pearl was getting quite impatient.

"Dunno, go ask captain whatever-his-name-is," Gold suggested.

"His name's Set," Diamond said.

"Oh right. I forgot."

"I have the feeling that we'll be there soon, so we might as well wait a little longer," Diamond proposed.

"You really can't see anything outside though, so we don't have any idea how close we are just by look –AAAHHH!" When Black was talking, he suddenly felt something fall on his shoulder, greatly surprising him.

He had a rather 'girly' scream, which was why his four friends were laughing at him (Gold and Pearl were rolling on the floor while laughing). Black turned around to see a Shuppet holding a piece of paper. It seemed that the Pokemon had sneaked up on him.

"Oh, for Reshiram's sake, why can't that idiot find a better way to pass messages?" Black mumbled annoyed about what had happened.

Due to reasons unknown to the Dexholders, Set had not spoken a single word to them the whole time he accompanied them. When he tried to communicate, he would always have one of his Pokemon (either a Shuppet or a Zubat) deliver a piece of paper to them.

"Everyone, we've finally arrived!" Black announced. The four had stopped laughing and were now cheering.

"We should go and wake up the others," Emerald said.

"It also says here that someone will come and collect our luggage, so we can just leave our stuff in the yacht."

"Okay."

"Actually, I've got a pretty awesome idea," Gold smugly said, taking out a Pokeball.

"Uh… Senior Gold? What are you doing?" Pearl asked.

"The mover Uproar is pretty handy in situations like these, don't you think?"

"Woah, woah, time out man. They're definitely going to get mad if you wake them up like that."

"Grow a backbone, Pearl. I've wanted to try this for a long time, and no way am I going to let this chance pass."

"Crys is going to be pissed off, you know," Emerald commented. "She's going to murder you once she finds out."

"And Senior Blue might want do something to you so as to get revenge," Diamond reminded.

"S-so what? Nothing's stopping me," Gold said adamantly. "And if they ask who's responsible, all we have to do is keep blaming each other, and eventually they'll give up and we'll be fine."

"That's some pretty messed up logic." Gold ignored the comment and released Togetaro. "Better cover up your ears, guys. Togetaro, use Uproar!"

**Not too long later…**

"Never, ever do that again," an angry Crystal warned. She had grabbed Gold by the collar of his shirt, and shook him with every word she said.

After Togetaro had unleashed the attack, every single person who was asleep had immediately woken up, confused and surprised. It didn't take long for a few of the puzzled Dexholders to run upstairs to find out what happened, and when asked, Gold's four loyal friends did not hesitate to sell him out by recounting the truth.

This resulted in Gold gaining a good number of bruises, courtesy of certain individuals, Crystal included.

"Somehow, this result was extremely predictable," Black whispered. Emerald, Diamond and Pearl agreed with him.

**Pokemon Research Institute Beach (2:15)**

After Set had approached and attached the yacht to the dock, he gestured for the Dexholders to get off, so the fifteen of them did as told and set foot on the dimly illuminated platform. They then noticed someone approaching them, and once the person was close enough for identification, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum merrily stepped forward to greet her.

"It's a great pleasure to see you again, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum," Jovi said with a kind smile as she and her previous co-workers exchanged greetings. While this was happening, the other Dexholders wasted no time examining the professor. Some were studying her appearance. Some were guessing the contents of a bag she was holding. One certain Dexholder was admiring the artistic pattern on the bag, and another certain Dexholder was staring at certain details of Jovi's body.

"Everyone, this is Professor Jovi, one of the researchers of the institute," Platinum introduced. Jovi bowed and warmly welcomed the Dexholders to the research institute. She then proceeded to converse with the Dexholders.

'_So this is a researcher? Damn, that's one killer body!'_ Gold thought, his mouth shaped into a perverted grin. "Man, ain't it nice?" Gold whispered to Ruby while continuing to stare at a certain part of Jovi's figure.

"Yeah, it's beautiful," Ruby whispered back, his eyes continuing to focus on the design on Jovi's bag.

'_Those two idiots, they're talking about two completely different things,'_ Green thought as he watched his two juniors.

"Now, please allow me to escort you to the research institute," Jovi said while motioning for the Dexholders to follow her.

Jovi moved much faster than anyone expected. Even though she had slowed down to match the Dexholders' pace, they still had to hasten their walking speed. It took them a few minutes to get to the edge of the large, thick forest. Here Jovi took out the contents of her bag, which happened to be sixteen Pokeballs, and released all of the contained Pokemon. Instantly the area around the Dexholders grew brighter.

"Here are eight Volbeat and eight Illumise. Without sunlight, it's impossible to get through the forest, so we'll be relying on the light given by these Pokemon," Jovi explained. "Please follow me closely, as it will be troublesome if one of us gets lost. Also, please beware of overgrown roots and the like – it is extremely easy to trip in the forest."

It took them ages to get through the forest, but in the end they finally reached the research institute.

**Pokemon Research Institute East Building (3:23)**

"The research institute consists of four buildings: one central building, and four other building on the north, east, south and west of the main building. All four buildings are connected via bridges. You all will be living in the eastern building," Jovi said as she led the Dexholders to the said building. Once they entered the east building, they all got into a lift which took them to the fifth floor.

"Here we are. This is a private floor for trainees – that is to say, under normal circumstances the only people who will be on this floor will be those who participate in the training program. If you keep going down that direction, you will find your bedrooms – one room for boys and one room for girls. We've already arranged for someone to take your luggage, so please settle down in your rooms and wait for them," Jovi instructed. "The training program starts the day after tomorrow, so you are all free to do as you want. Well then, I shall take my leave. Please contact me if you run into any problems; Crystal, Emerald and Platinum have my phone number." With that said, the researcher left.

**Boys' room (3:30)**

"Wow, the room's quite spacious," Red said upon entering the room. The Champion was expecting a much smaller, cramped room, but he was mistaken. There was definitely enough space for nine people in the room.

"There's a total of twelve desks, twelve chairs and twelve wardrobes," Green said. "We may or may not have to share this room with three other trainees."

"Hopefully it's not some weirdo," Gold commented.

'_Actually, we've got quite a few strange people in our group already,'_ Red thought. "If we do have other trainees, I hope that they're good at battling."

'_Wow, they don't call him the Battler for nothing,'_ Diamond thought.

"Hey Red, don't forget about your no.1 rival. I'm willing to battle you anytime," Green said with confidence.

"That's a challenge, isn't it? OK, challenge accepted! I'll take you on when we get the chance," Red replied, anticipating the opportunity to trade blows with his friend.

The sound of someone rapping the door could be heard, and Silver opened it to find a boy of his age standing outside. Next to the boy were the Dexholders' belongings.

"I'm here to deliver your stuff," the boy told Silver. Before anyone could say anything, he ran away, leaving the male Dexholders to deal with their own luggage.

"For a researcher, he sure doesn't dress like one,"

"I wonder why he was in such a hurry," Emerald murmured.

"Who cares? I'll save unpacking for tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep. Good night," Silver said, stifling a yawn. None of the others could be bothered to do anything as well, aside from close their eyes and rest so they switched off the lights and immersed themselves in the world of fantasies, dreams and rest.

**Girls' room (3:30)**

"Even though there's a lot of furniture in the room, there's still quite a lot of space left," Blue said as she scanned the room. "That's much better than I expected." The room had a total of seven beds, seven desks and seven chairs, so it was much more spacious than the boys' room.

"And to have the whole floor to ourselves, that's really generous," Yellow commented. "Even though this is probably the world's biggest research facility, I guess that not every single floor is used for research."

"Yes, senior, you're right about that. Aside from research-related facilities, there are numerous recreational facilities spread out among the four buildings. Also, the west building of the research institute was created for the purpose of providing living quarters for the researchers, so overall there are less research-related areas in total than one would imagine," Platinum explained. The females talked for a while, and knocking could be heard, so Crystal opened the door to find a female her age standing outside.

"Excuse me I'm here to deli – Crys! So you're one of the trainees? I didn't expect to see you again so soon," the girl said. It turned out that the girl, named Rui, was a researcher who had cooperated with and befriended Crystal, Emerald and Platinum. Rui chatted with the female Dexholders for a while, dropped off their belongings and left.

Nothing else happened that night.

**Pokemon Research Institute East Building (12:20)**

A lot had happened the previous night, so the exhausted Dexholders all got up quite late. By the time they gathered outside their rooms, their stomachs were growling.

Although there was a cafeteria in the east wing (building), Platinum advised against eating there due to the fact that it would be extremely crowded, and that there wouldn't be enough space for all of them. Fortunately, on their private floor was a decently sized kitchen that was connected to a large living room, and the kitchen was stacked with different food items, so those among the Dexholders who could cook helped to prepare lunch for everyone, and the fifteen of them all ate in the living room.

"According to Professor Jovi, we've got the day to ourselves, so what should we do?" Red asked.

"Since we're going to live here for two years, why don't we go around and try to know the area?" Yellow suggested.

"I guess that it's better than sitting around doing nothing at all," Blue said. "Hopefully we'll come across something interesting."

In the end they decided to split up and explore the facility. The females distributed maps that Rui had given them, and everyone left the living room, agreeing to come back at half past seven for dinner.

**Pokemon Research Institute North Building (14:05)**

Black had been wandering around with no particular destination in mind, simply looking around wherever he went. Exploring a new area had its fun parts, but it was getting boring, and he was hoping to do something different. He was seriously considering getting Musharna to clear his head so that he could work out something to do, but as he was debating whether to do so or not he didn't realize that someone was calling his name behind him.

"…ack! Black!" Black was caught by surprise and turned backwards, and was even more surprised to see who it was.

"It's been a while, how's everything?"

"Cheren? Holy shit, you've completely changed! What's with the new clothes and the tie, man? And what happened to your glasses?"

"After the whole Team Plasma incident, I decided that I'd cast away my old self and start anew, hence the different appearance," Cheren explained.

"So you've changed, huh? Does that mean that you've stopped treating your Pokemon badly?" Upon hearing the question, Cheren's expression changed. He looked as if he was remembering something he'd rather forget.

"Who knows? Guess you'll have to find out yourself."

"Ok, I got it. If it's a rematch you want, I'll battle you."

"You read my mind. Follow me – I'll take you to somewhere we can battle."

**Pokemon Research Institute North Building (14:05)**

Yellow and White had managed to meet each other by coincidence when they were walking around the north building, so they decided to explore the area together, conversing about different things while strolling around.

As they were chatting and moving forward, White suddenly stopped after seeing someone.

"What's wrong, White? Is it someone you know?" Yellow asked.

"Yeah, she's a friend. I should say hello," White said as she advanced towards said person, Yellow following her closely.

**Author's Note: Rui is a character from the game Pokemon Colosseum. As for Cheren, throughout the story he will have adopted his costume in BW2.**


	6. Meet and greet

**Author's Note: Summer holidays are ending fast, so I'll only be able to finish another chapter or two. Even though I've got the whole story written out in my head, it takes time to divide into individual chapters. At any rate, do enjoy this chapter.**

**Pokemon Research Institute South Building (14:10)**

Blue and Sapphire were going around the institute together, and happened to come across Ruby. Not wanting to miss the chance to get Ruby to admit that he had been faking his amnesia, Sapphire quietly sneaked up towards him, so that he wouldn't escape at the sight of her approaching. Blue grinned as she watched the hunt between predator and prey, which ultimately ended in the predator's victory.

"Don't go sneaking up on others, Sapph. What do you want?" Ruby asked, though he already knew what the girl was after.

"Ruby~ Blue and I are having a good time exploring the place, so why don't you come and join us? Let's go together," Sapphire invited Ruby with a smile. Ruby wasn't oblivious enough to not recognize the order, and he knew that he had no choice but to accept the 'invitation'.

"_Damn, not only do I have to deal with Sapphire, but Blue's here as well. I'll have to be careful, or I won't be able to get away from this,'_ Ruby thought. To him, the two females were among the people he currently didn't want to deal with the most: Sapphire was someone he was lying to, and he didn't want to risk accidentally revealing the truth. Blue had a track record of coming up with strange plans, and Ruby was worried that the Evolver might be helping Sapphire in whatever she was planning.

The atmosphere was quite heavy as the three of them kept moving. They didn't care about the environment around them – instead they were focused on a 'battle' that was about to begin.

'_I don't care what you say, I'll just deny everything and escape when I have the chance,'_ Ruby thought determinedly.

'_I've prepared for this some time ago. I don't know what excuses you'll come up with but I'll force the truth out of you,'_ Sapphire thought, watching Ruby with the corner of her eye.

'_Never mind the accusations and the excuses, just get started already you two!'_ Blue thought, excitedly anticipating the exchange between the Charmer and the Conqueror.

Ruby's eyes were looking around, searching frantically for a chance to escape. Sapphire's were carefully watching Ruby, waiting for an opening to start the verbal 'assault'. Her eyes were burning. As for Blue, she was so excited about what was happening her eyes seemed to be sparkling.

Eventually, Sapphire decided that it was time to begin asking questions. As for Ruby, he managed to come up with a plan to get away.

**Pokemon Research Institute North Building (14:15)**

"Here we are. This is the seventh floor of the north wing. All of the rooms on this floor are used for research," Bianca explained. "Do you want to go in one of these rooms and take a look?"

It turned out that the acquaintance White was talking about was Bianca. Bianca was delighted to see White again, and after Yellow was introduced to her, she decided to join Yellow and White on their tour around the facility, since she was had nothing on her hands anyway.

"Is that alright? We aren't researchers, so wouldn't that be forbidden?" Yellow asked.

"Don't worry, I'm with you guys, so it'll be fine," Bianca assured her.

"In that case, let's go in. I'm interested," White said.

The room had quite a few expensive, sophisticated machines. The room was not very bright, and there were pieces of paper lying on a table. Opposite of the entrance was a large glass window which showed a section of the interior of the facility.

"This room is used to monitor practical experiments," Bianca explained. "The experiments are carried out over there, and we can watch the whole process from that window," she said, pointing at said item. "These machines record the results of the experiments, and that machine is a little special; it's used to create a desired environment."

"What do you mean by environment?"

"Well, if I press one of the buttons on the machine, the sprinklers on the ceiling start pouring (water), effectively imitating the move Rain Dance. Or if I press another certain button, I can create an artificial sandstorm to imitate a real one," Bianca answered.

"That's pretty cool. Hey, since the lights are on, doesn't that mean that someone's doing an experiment right now?" White asked.

"I don't think so, since there's no one here monitoring the experiment. Sometimes the researchers battle there when they're bored, and some of those guys are really strong! Hey, why don't we go and take a look for ourselves?" Bianca suggested, walking to the other side of the room, her two companions following her.

Yellow and White were surprised by how big the area beyond the window was. It was at least higher than three floors, and was very wide as well. Below they could see a rather fierce battle between two trainers, and was even more surprised when they identified who the two were.

"Isn't that Black? Why's he battling with Cheren?" Bianca asked, not that she expected an answer.

"Who's the other trainer? He must be strong to be able to match Black in a Pokemon battle," Yellow said.

"Oh, that's Cheren, Black's childhood friend. The three of us used to play together all the time," Bianca answered.

"Those two are amazing. There's no way I can win against any of them, I'd be beaten instantly," White said, discouraged.

"Me too, I'm also really bad at Pokemon battles," Yellow sighed.

"This takes me back," Bianca said with the voice of someone remembering something. "It reminds me of when those two always played together a long time ago."

'_D-did she just compare such a ferocious battle with children playing?'_ White and Yellow thought.

"Even though they look like they're giving each other a hard time, you can't mistake the smile on their faces. They seem to be having so much fun," Bianca said. Upon closer inspection, Yellow and White could not help but agree with her.

"It's all so nostalgic, I'm glad that the three of us get to meet each other again," Bianca murmured.

'_At least Black will have a reason to enjoy the two years here. That's good,'_ White thought.

**Pokemon Research Institute South Building (14:25)**

"I can't *pant* believe that I fell for such a stupid lie and *pant* let him get away. Well, that's fine with me, I've got two years worth of *pant* time to make him confess," Sapphire mumbled. "We live under the same roof anyway."

'_I should apologize to Senior Blue for leaving her behind later,'_ Sapphire thought.

With her main objective gone, Sapphire decided to wander around, and she soon came across a gym in the south building. Red happened to be in the gym at that time, so Sapphire went in and greeted her senior. Something seemed to be puzzling the Battler, and so Sapphire asked.

"At first glance, the place looks like any normal workout area, but if you look carefully, you can see that the gym's been used by Pokemon. Also, the gym equipment doesn't look like it can be used by humans – for example, those dumbbells over there look too heavy for us to lift up," Red said, pointing at a dumbbell rack.

"Let me try it out," Sapphire said, walking over to the rack and randomly chose a dumbbell. It took every ounce of her strength just to lift it up for ten seconds.

"This thing's too heavy! It's definitely not for human use," Sapphire commented after she placed the dumbbell back to where it belonged.

"You're right about that. This Gym is used for training Pokemon, so all of the equipment here can't be used by humans." Rede and Sapphire saw that it was a young boy around their age who was speaking to them. The boy had green hair and wore plain clothes.

"Who are ya? Are you a researcher?" Sapphire asked.

"Yeah, but I'm only working here temporarily. My name's Wally," the boy said, introducing himself.

"I'm Red, and this is Sapphire," Red said in reply.

"Ah, so you must be the Kanto Champion, Red the Battler; and you must be Sapphire the Conqueror, from the Hoenn Region. It's an honor to meet such awesome people like you two," Wally said.

"Wow, I didn't know that we were that famous," Sapphire replied, blushing. It was quite embarrassing for her to be praised by some random person, though Red was quite used to it.

"We really aren't that great. Still, you seem to know quite a lot," Red stated.

"I heard about you two from a friend of mine, though it would be impossible for me not to know who the champion of the Pokemon League is, no matter the region. As for Sapphire, I know about her exploits because I'm from Hoenn too," Wally explained. "That aside, I'm shocked that you're able to carry that dumbbell," he said, pointing at the item Sapphire previously held.

"Yeah, it really was heavy."

"Actually, that dumbbell is as heavy as a fully grown Lairon (around 120kg), so it's quite amazing that you've managed to even lift it up," Wally said with a weak laugh.

"Sapphire, you ARE human, right?"

"Ehehe…"

**Pokemon Research Institute West Building (14:30)**

'_Holy Rayquaza, flipping woman was chasing me for fifteen minutes straight! Where the hell does she get all that stamina?_' Ruby thought while breathing hard. _'Even with the Running Shoes, she still managed to keep up with me! She's such a scary person.'_

'_Wait a moment, I was so desperate to get away I didn't pay attention to where I was running to. Where is this place?'_ Ruby pondered while looking around.

"You're currently on the eighth floor of the west wing, if you're wondering," a voice said, gaining Ruby's attention. Ruby saw that it was a man in his late twenties who spoke to him. The man had black hair and a pair of black-framed glasses, and wore casual clothes.

"Hey brother, you look beat. Have a drink," the man said, handing Ruby a soft drink.

"Oh, thank you very much, Mr. …"

"Drop the formalities. The name's Sakata, a pleasure to meet you, Ruby," the man said.

'_Sakata? I swear I heard that name somewhere befo – hold on a moment.'_ Ruby's thought was interrupted when he heard the man say his name. "How do you know my name?"

"I'm the guy in charge of the training program, so it's the least I can do to know who I'll be training for the next two years. I'm also the guy who set up the prank in the yacht, if you remember what I'm talking about. No hard feelings, k?"

"OH, so that's why your name was so familiar!" At this moment, Green happened to be nearby. Seeing his senior, Ruby called out to the Trainer. He was quite surprised to find out that Green and Sakata knew each other.

"He challenged me at my Gym before, and the match ended in a draw," Green answered when asked by Ruby.

"Yeah, that was quite the spectacular battle. I don't think I'll forget that anytime soon," Sakata said.

**Pokemon Research Institute Central Building** **(16:20)**

"Finished work, Rui?" The girl turned around to see her friend walking towards her. It seemed that he had was done as well, and wanted to know if she had any plans for the rest of the day.

"Actually, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum arrived here very early this morning, so I'm going to go meet them and see how they're doing. They said that they'll wait for me at the cafeteria downstairs, why don't you come as well, Wes?"

"Huh, I never thought that they'd be back already. Sure, I'll come with you."

Wes was a tall, young man who had orange eyes and grayish hair, and wore a blue coat over black leggings. As for Rui, she was a girl of average height. She had orange hair which was tied into twin ponytails, blue eyes, wore a blue jacket over her shirt, a white skirt and pink boots.

When the two researchers met up with their three friends, they all exchanged greetings, and the two researchers sat down with the three Dexholders.

"I never thought that we'd meet again so soon," Rui said.

"Same here," Wes agreed with his friend.

"Why were you in such a rush last night, Wes? I didn't even get the chance to say hello," Emerald asked. It turned out that Wes was the person who delivered the male Dexholders' belongings to their room.

"I remembered something I had forgotten to do so I had to rush back, and I didn't catch sight of you last night when I was delivering your luggage," Wes explained.

"You people certainly are enthusiastic trainers, joining the training program," Rui commented.

"Actually, it kind of got forced on us," Crystal replied. Crystal, Emerald and Platinum then proceeded to explain their current situation, and after doing so talked about the other Dexholders.

They spent a long time talking.

**East building trainees' private floor (19:40)**

The Dexholders were all sitting in the living room, enjoying a delicious meal (Diamond contributed a lot) and conversing with each other.

Apparently after Blue was unintentionally dumped by Sapphire, she managed to meet up with Silver and the 'siblings' spent the rest of the afternoon together, with nothing special happening to them. Gold got bored of exploring the institute after a while and spent the rest of the day asleep. As for Diamond and Pearl, they ran into Set, and after interacting with him managed to befriend and understand him a little.

"I'm surprised that you guys were able to talk to the guy. He never even spoke to us in the two days we were waiting on that yacht," Black said.

"He didn't say anything to us because he couldn't. He was born without the ability to speak," Diamond explained. This came as a surprise to everyone.

"No kidding? Damn," Gold commented. He never thought that this would be the reason for Set's silence.

"I did not know that there was someone like that in the institute, in spite of having previously worked here," Platinum said. The only researchers she, Crystal and Emerald were familiar with were Jovi, Wes and Rui. After all those three were the only ones she worked with.

"But how did he communicate with the two of you then?" Silver asked.

"He typed what he wanted to say into his computer and the computer would play out what he wanted to speak. He could control how fast, in what kind of voice and how loud the voice played by the computer was, and he could do the whole 'computer-speaking' thing so fast it was no different from talking to a normal person." This time it was Pearl who did the answering. They talked about the person in question a bit more and the conversation topic changed.

"Excuse me people, can I have your attention for a moment?" The Dexholders ceased their conversation to see who it was who interrupted them. All eyes fell on the two people who were standing in the hallway, the two being Wes and Rui.

Both researchers looked quite exhausted. When asked about why they came, they gave an answer that shocked everyone.

"Did you say that you two are here to join us in the training program as trainees?" Crystal asked in disbelief. "But I thought you guys worked here?"

"What happened was that we were forced to join you guys," Rui replied. "The researcher in charge of the training program called us to his office, saying that it was something urgent. When we got to his office, he just ordered us to take part in the training program with all of you, and that was it."

"That guy was our senior, and he was really adamant about it – which is really rare, because he's a very carefree person, so we didn't have a choice," Wes concluded with a sigh.

"That researcher was Sakata, wasn't it?" Green asked.

"How'd you know?" Rui was slightly surprised and curious.

"Ruby and I ran into him today. We were talking about the training program, and he told us that there were a few others aside from us," Green answered.

"I see, so the bastard had already thought of this some time ago," Wes mumbled. "But he said 'a few others' right? If that's the case, we might not be the only ones forced to join you."

'_I think I have an idea who else is forced to join us,'_ White thought.

"At any rate, it's nice to meet you all. Let's get along in the next two years," Rui said while smiling. They exchanged introductions with the Dexholders, and the two of them left to move their things into their respective rooms.

**Girls' room (21:00)**

'_Bingo. I knew that it had to be them,'_ White thought when she opened her room's door to find Bianca standing outside with a suitcase of belongings.

"So, you and Cheren are here to join us, huh. Come in," White said, inviting her friend into the room.

"Wow, how did you know?" Bianca asked.

"You two aren't the first," White answered, pointing her thumb at Rui. The Dreamer then proceeded to introduce Bianca to those who didn't know her.

"Aside from Wes, Rui, Cheren and you, are there any others joining?" Yellow asked.

"Yeah, there's this boy called Wally that's more or less our age, but otherwise there isn't anyone else," Bianca answered.

"Oh, I know him. He's a nice guy," Sapphire said.

"It's amazing how everyone who's participating seems to know each other," Blue commented. "But let's save the talk for tomorrow and get some rest. We've got the training program tomorrow morning." Her juniors agreed, and they all had an early night.

While the male Dexholders did not sleep as early as their female friends, they didn't end the day late. Both parties would wake up the next day with enough energy to deal with the upcoming activities.

**Author's Note: Wes is the protagonist of the game Pokemon Colosseum. He and Rui are the main characters of the game. **

**Extra Scene – After Black and Cheren's battle**

"I can't believe that I'm on a losing streak. Your growth is amazing." Cheren spoke between heavy pants.

"You really aren't one to talk, man. I was really worried about losing back there," Black replied. He too was breathing heavily.

"It really was a decent battle, but let's talk somewhere else – other might have to use this room," Cheren suggested. As both were walking, Black raised his fist towards Cheren.

"Just like the old times," Black explained with a grin when Cheren looked at him questioningly. Cheren then understood what he meant and bumped his fist against Black's.

"Yeah, it's just like the old times," Cheren said with a fond smile.


	7. Training program begins! (1 of 2)

**Author's Note: School's starting soon, so there'll be quite a long pause before I get to write again. Hopefully I'll be able to finish one more chapter before then.**

**East building trainees' private floor (9:00)**

According to Wes and Rui, Sakata had told them that the training program was to take place at a certain part of the main building at fifteen minutes past nine, so the trainees decided to gather in front of their rooms and go to their destination together.

The four wings of the Pokemon Research Institute were tall, skyscraper-like buildings that were considered to be large, but they could not be compared with the sheer size of the main building. The central building was a greatly sized dome, so it took some time to get from one place of the central building to another.

**Main building Battling Stadium (9:15)**

Their destination turned out to be a massive, well-maintained indoor battling stadium. It had the typical design of an indoor arena used for Pokemon battling, and one could tell that it was a high quality stadium – not even losing to the stadium in the Pokemon League in terms of size and quality. It was evident that it cost a huge fortune to keep the structure up to standard.

The group barely made it to the stadium in time to find Seth and Sakata waiting for them. Sakata was wearing casual clothes as usual while smiling a cheerful smile. Set was carrying his laptop on one hand and a briefcase in his other.

"Good ~ morning people, welcome to the first day of our two year long training program! I'm Sakata, the one in charge of the training program. I'm also the guy who set up the prank on the yacht, sorry about that," Sakata cheerfully introduced himself. "Don't need to call me 'professor' or anything polite, just Sakata will do."

"Hello. Do you remember me? I'm Set, we've met before. I'm one of the researchers who help with the training program. Let's get along," Set's computer played out the sentence using the voice of a shy, young boy.

'_It really is no different from speaking,'_ Yellow thought, her sentiment being the same as the majority of the group.

"Come on Set don't need to be so nervous! Look at them, such beautiful girls can't be bad people, right?" Sakata said, nudging his partner. "And those boys look like nice people, if you don't count Silver who looks like a delinquent." This earned him a glare from Silver and laughter from Gold.

'_Actually I__ also__ thought he was a punk when we first met,'_ Crystal thought, smiling at the memory.

"Well, jokes aside let's get this thing started. For today we'll be doing tons of battling. You guys better fight seriously – this is a chance for us instructors to get a better understanding about you people as trainers. All of these will be 3 on 3 single battles with switching allowed. We've already taken the liberty to split you all into groups, and to make things easier for us one pair will battle at a time. As for the rest of you, just watch from the audience seats and wait patiently," Sakata instructed.

The first pair to duel was Gold and Silver. When Sakata gave the order to begin, both trainers released their Pokemon. While the exchange between the two Johto Dexholders was happening, Sakata spent his time talking to the other trainees and commenting about the battle between Gold and Silver, with the comments mostly being praises.

"Darn those two are doing better than I estimated," Sakata said. "It'll be fun to battle either of them."

"Say, Sakata, what is Set doing?" Blue asked, pointing at said person. Set was carefully watching Gold and Silver's battle while operating three laptops at the same time.

"Oh, he's just recording and analyzing some stuff about their battle. It's mostly some really precise details so don't worry about it," Sakata answered.

"It's amazing how he's using three computers at the same time," Diamond commented.

"Yeah, he's a god when it comes to cyber technology. I'm really lucky to work with him, since he gets everything done quickly and efficiently."

The match between Gold and Silver ended in Silver's Weavile taking out Sutaro with a Night Slash, resulting in Silver's victory.

"The next pair is Ruby and Wally, so get going please," Sakata said. The mentioned pair got onto the stadium while Gold and Silver went to the audience seats.

"How many times have I beaten you already? I think I've lost count," Silver said, grinning slyly as he and Gold sat next to their group. Gold didn't say anything because he had suffered defeat at the hands of the Trader on many occasions, and he really had given up counting his loses after losing for the umpteenth time.

Ruby and Wally's battle was one-sided. Due to the fact that Ruby did not want to get his Pokemon dirty, he had his Pokemon adopt an evasive strategy of attacking from far and avoiding close combat. However Wally was no pushover and Ruby's strategy was proving to be useless against him.

"Ruby, if you don't fight seriously I will go and FUCKING BURN DOWN YOUR CLOSET OF CLOTHES RIGHT NOW!"Sakata yelled. Everyone in the area except for Set froze. Through interaction with Sakata, one could easily tell that he was a relaxed and cheerful person, so his sudden burst of anger was really uncalled for.

Ruby gulped. Earlier Sakata had told them to fight seriously but Ruby clearly wasn't, so he was in the wrong. Also, Ruby disliked the idea of his clothes being burnt to crisps. After he steadied himself, Ruby started battling seriously. Wally had anticipated this, but he had not expected Ruby to display such a high level of battling.

"Man~ pretending to get angry and shouting threats really is tiring!" Sakata was back to his usual, cheerful self. "Sorry if I scared you guys just now, it was just an act."

"Wait, so you weren't mad at him for messing around?" Sapphire asked. She was dumbfounded by the sudden attitude changes the researcher was showing.

"I wouldn't get mad over such a small issue, no way," Sakata answered. "But I am serious about seeing how well you guys can battle. All I wanted to do was motivate Ruby, that's all. It may have been overkill though."

Ruby had quickly flipped the tables and was beginning to gain an advantage, but Wally was doing a good job of holding his own against Ruby's Pokemon. In the end Wally's Cacturne managed to catch Nana in a surprise attack, but Ruby had his Pokemon retaliate, and the match ended in a draw.

"Sakata, I'm sorry for earlier," Ruby apologized when he returned to the audience seats. Sakata laughed, replying that it was alright and thanked Ruby for showing him a decent battle.

Sometime later the majority of the trainees had finished battling. Sakata was satisfied with the process and outcome of each battle, and was in a cheerful mood. There were only two pairs remaining: Yellow and White, Red and Green.

"Let's save the best for the last. Yellow and White, it's your turn. But you two will be standing on the same side of the stadium, as you two will be fighting together. Oh, and you're not allowed to use your special powers, Yellow." Everyone watched with interest as the two females nervously walked onto the stadium.

"You two will each use one Pokemon for this battle, so please release your Pokemon." Doing as they were told, Yellow sent out Golosk while White chose Amanda. As everyone was wondering what would happen next, Set suddenly tossed two Pokeballs onto the stadium. A Shuppet and a Zubat popped out from the Pokeballs – the exact same Pokemon that Set used to deliver his messages on the yacht.

'_Amanda is a decent battler, with speed and defense being its selling points. Senior Yellow's Golem is pretty slow, but it has good offense and defense. No matter how I look, they look stronger than Set's two pre-evolved Pokemon,'_ Black thought.

Most of the Dexholders also thought that Yellow and White would at least have an advantage over their opponents, but to their surprise and horror Yellow and White were struggling against Set's Pokemon: Amanda was trying hard to keep up with the Shuppet, while Golosk was unable to do anything against the Zubat and could only defend.

"You guys never imagined that those two would be losing to Set by this much, huh?" Sakata said as if he was reading their thoughts. "It's not as if the Shuppet and Zubat are doing as well as any of your Pokemon in the previous matches, so why are they dominating by so much?" He asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Forgive me for being blunt," Cheren said. "But isn't the reason because those two aren't good enough?"

"Huh? Are you sure it isn't because Set's Pokemon are too well-trained?" Bianca asked. "I mean, Set's really good at training Pokemon, right?"

"This isn't his Pokemons' full strength. They're fighting at a significantly lower level than they usually do, and you can't ignore the fact that he hasn't issued a single command for the whole battle, while Yellow and White have been directing their Pokemon the whole time," Cheren replied, straightening his tie.

'_Man, he's as serious and harsh as ever when it comes to criticism,'_ Black thought. Cheren had a habit of adjusting his glasses when he was serious about something, but it seemed that he had replaced his old habit with fixing his attire.

"This is according to information Professor Oak gave me and from observing them, so it's not entirely accurate, but this is what I think: Yellow's main strength is her special powers, but without it she's just a better-than-average trainer. As for White, even though she's improved quite quickly, she still lacks experience. Also, both of their Pokemon are kind of low-leveled. Even Set's Shuppet and Zubat are higher-leveled than Amanda and Golosk," Sakata explained his theory.

"There's no need to look so gloomy," Red said, gaining everyone's attention. Even though his friends were in a pinch, he was still quite calm. "You should have more faith in those two. They're not called Dexholders for nothing. They'll figure out something in the end."

"You know, I was thinking the same thing!" Sakata slapped Red on the back. "Something interesting is going to happen, so watch closely everyone."

'_Neither White or I am able to do anything,'_ Yellow thought, searching her brains for an idea.

'_We won't be able to win if we fight like this,'_ White concluded.

'_Those two Pokemon are too fast, Golosk can't hit them.'_

'_But if Amanda manages to slow them down somehow…'_

The two happened to think of an idea at the same time. Everyone was curious as they watched the two girls exchange words (they couldn't hear what the two were saying).

"Amanda, use Leaf Storm on both of them!" The Regal Pokemon gathered its strength and released a few cyclones of sharp, green leaves at its opponents. The two Pokemon were able to continuously evade the barrage of leaves, albeit with great difficulty.

The attack may have been unable to hit, but this was all anticipated. Set's Pokemon were too busy dodging the Leaf Storm to notice that Golosk had fired a Rock Blast at each of them. Seconds before the move made contact, the two Pokemon did notice the huge rocks flying towards them, but were unable to do anything. Dodging would result in getting caught in Amanda's assault, and there wasn't enough time to retaliate. The attack hit the two Pokemon dead on, and the brunt of the attack caused them to fall and get caught by the Leaf Storm. This resulted in Set's Pokemon being knocked out, making the battle Yellow and White's victory.

Yellow wanted to heal Set's Pokemon, but he had returned them back to their pokeballs before she could do so. Sakata explained that the Pokeballs Set used healed his Pokemon whenever they were returned, so she need not worry. Finally, it was time for Red and Green to battle.

It was definitely the highlight of the day. The exchange between their Pokemon was so fierce that it made the other battles look as if their Pokemon were playing, not battling. Mesmerized, every single person could not take their eyes off the exciting showdown. None of the audience spoke a single word throughout the whole match.

In the end, Red won by an extremely slight margin. Silence hung in the air even after the battle ended, until Sakata decided to break it.

"First of all, a round of applause to everyone's hard efforts today," he said, clapping. No one decided to join him. "Anyways, since today is the first day of our two year long program, I'll go easy on you all and end today's training right here. I'll see you all tomorrow."

**Author's Note: Please remember to read part two, and thanks for reading.**


	8. The unexpected tragedy (2 of 2)

**Author's Note: Due to a certain issue, I had to split the chapter into 2 parts. This is short, but an important point of the story, so please enjoy.**

The trainees spent the rest of the day together, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

And now we fast forward to midnight…

**Southern Island (00:00)**

"…And after that, I went to Lilycove City. I was curious about the Pokemon Contests, so I 'transformed' into a human and explored the place," Latias recounted the events of the day.

"I see, and how was it?" Latios asked.

"It was great! It was fun to watch, and the atmosphere was really fun – don't fall asleep while I'm talking!" Latias scolded as she smacked her brother awake.

"Ouch, that hurt. You're a girl, so be more gentle."

"You always fall asleep when we talk like this at night. You're so mean!" Latias complained.

"Well, everyone isn't an energetic idiot like you, and it's unreasonable to make me stay up late just to talk with you."

"But I can't fly around at night, and I rarely get to talk to you, so – HEY! I'm not an idiot!"

'_Wow, she's slow,'_ Latios thought. "Okay, I'm sorry, there's no need to be aggressive," he said, restraining his sister from hitting him again. Latias gave up after a few seconds, and went back to telling her brother about her day.

"Looks like someone had a fun time," Latios said, looking at the night sky. Latias noticed that he was lost in thought and wanted to know what he was thinking.

"Star-filled nights like these remind me of when we first met Emerald," Latios answered while reminiscing. Silence hung in the air as the two Eon Pokemon thought about their friend.

"Hey Latios, why don't we go pay Emerald a visit?" Latias suggested after some thought.

"That's not a bad idea, but we have no idea where he is," Latios answered.

"Never mind details like that! We can just fly around and look for him! We've got plenty of time on our hands."

"Something like that will never work. We'll run out of strength before we even find him," Latios said. "You really are an idiot." The blue Eon Pokemon had to once again stop his sister from mauling him.

After that the two spent some time talking, but an event that would change their lives then took place.

"Latias, hide! Someone's here," Latios said. There was no mistaking the urgency in his voice, and Latias was also able to sense the presence of intruders, so the duo quickly became invisible.

A huge group of people and people and Pokemon got onto the island, seemingly searching for something. Hidden from view, the Eon Pokemon observed the intruders' actions. Something about the intruders' movements felt suspicious to Latios, and after careful observation, he noticed that the intruders had surrounded the spot where he and Latias where hiding.

'_Damn it, were they aiming for us the whole time?'_ Without warning the intruders ordered their Pokemon to attack, but Latios had predicted this and created a shield to deflect the incoming attacks. It seemed that his sister had also seen this coming as she too defended with a shield of her own.

Knowing that escape was impossible, the two Eon Pokemon decided to fight their enemies. Even though they were severely outnumbered they fought valiantly, managing to defeat nearly all of their enemies, but in the end they succumbed and lost consciousness.

Satisfied with the result, the leader of the intruders took out a Pokegear in order to report his success.

"…Yes, we've managed to secure the targets," the person said, looking at the two fallen Pokemon.

"…"

"The casualties were extremely heavy. In fact, I am the only one standing. Despite sending a hundred- man army of elites, we were nearly defeted."

"…"

"I understand, sir. I will now transport the targets back to our base of operations."

**Trainees' private floor Boys' Room (00:30)**

He could not understand why, but Emerald woke up with a start. Seconds ago, the Charmer was enjoying a peaceful sleep without being interrupted, and now he was wide awake.

His heart being crushed by some intense, invisible voice was no doubt the best way to describe the feeling in his chest. Reflexively, Emerald placed a hand on his chest. Not only was he being tortured by some incredible, unexplainable pain, Emerald was also sweating, his head hurt, and for some reason tears fell from his eyes.

It was a strange phenomenon, and Emerald certainly did not understand it, but one thing was for certain: he was feeling unwell, so he made his way to the infirmary. Emerald was in so much pain that on his way to his destination he collapsed and fainted. Fortunately for him, Jovi who was still awake happened to be searching for something nearby and heard the noise of Emerald collapsing. She managed to find the boy, and carried him all the way to the infirmary where she took care of him.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Well, R.I.P. Eon duo, it was fun writing about them. *Small spoiler* I did say I'd stop introducing OCs for a while, so rest assured and know that the evil team at the end of the chapter isn't created by me. *End of spoiler* Once again, thanks for reading.


	9. A chapter of numerous events

**Author's Note: So glad I could finish this before school. To all those who have read this story, thank you very, very much. I'm moved that someone even knows about this thing.**

**Professor Oak's Laboratory (4:30)**

Being an important figure in Pokemon research, Professor Oak's everyday was filled with mountains and mountains of research work. At times the old man had to work for excruciatingly long hours, especially when his grandson or his helpers (Crystal and Emerald) were occupied with other business.

However, no matter how busy Professor Oak was, there was no reason for him to be sitting in his laboratory, lights on when the hour was still so early. After all, the sun was still sleeping, so why shouldn't the old man be?

A week ago, Professor Oak was notified by one of his allies that an agent was sent to him to deliver some important items. Therefore the professor was not asleep at the moment, as he was waiting for the agent to arrive.

Someone knocked on his door thrice, then twice, then once and twice again. This was the signal he was waiting for, and the professor rushed to open the door. The agent waiting for him was exactly how Jovi had described him: clad in blue and accompanied by a Lucario and Riolu.

Oak invited Riley into his laboratory and locked the door. The two men exchanged greetings and a handshake, then Riley handed Oak the items he was tasked with delivering, which the professor quickly inspected.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but all of a sudden the two men were startled by the noise of something hammering the door of the laboratory. It was definitely strange, and the professor and Riley were on high alert.

"Impossible! How did Lucario and I fail to detect anything?" Riley exclaimed. "Professor Oak, please stand back. I'll open the door." As Riley carefully approached the locked door (monotonous pounding could still be heard), his Lucario and Riolu readied themselves for combat, and Oak had a hand wrapped around a Pokeball. He had had his share of being attacked, and was prepared for the worst.

Thanks to his fasts reaction, Riley was able to jump backwards before the bottom of a fist collided with his face upon opening the door. Seeing its trainer attacked, Lucario formed a whip made of aura and used it to bind the attacker, successfully restraining him.

The person standing in front of Riley was a teenager who had dark red hair and wore a blue headband. He had pale green eyes that looked emotionless, and wore a yellow vest, black leggings, blue pants and boots. The strangest thing about him was that he had some sort of device attached to his left arm and another device above his left ear.

The boy showed no hint of emotion, not even when he was tied up by Lucario. He seemed to be strangely calm about what was happening, and showed no intention of breaking free. He was a strange person, and neither Riley nor Professor Oak had any idea what he was up to.

"My apologies, sir," the boy said. "I have yet to grasp the timing of when to stop knocking on the door," he explained. He spoke in such a mechanical voice, he sounded like a robot.

Never had Riley or the professor heard of such a ridiculous excuse, but the teen sounded quite serious about what he had said.

"Who are you, boy, and what do you want?" Professor Oak asked his hand still wrapped around a Pokeball.

"Before I state my purposes for being here, sir, may I ask if that man is trustable, Professor Samuel Oak?" The boy said, looking at Riley. Oak told him that Riley could be trusted, and the boy continued to speak.

"My name is Michael, sir. I have been sent here by my master to ask for your assistance…"

**Pokemon Research Institute main building (17:40)**

"Oh crap, I left my notes! I have to go back and get them, see you guys later!" Emerald said as he ran back to the classroom. The trainees had just finished their training for the day, and were on their way back to the east building.

Starting from the second day of the training program, the trainees had to go through combat training (tons and tons and tons of battling) from half past nine to twelve o'clock. They then had an afternoon break, and after that they had 'classroom sessions' in a certain room that looked like a classroom in the main building. These sessions started from three thirty to half past five, and were led by Jovi (and occasionally, Sakata who decided to drop by) who taught the group about different things, ranging from Pokemon of different regions to the precise angles and ranges of different attacks.

Most of the information taught in the class was very detailed, so Jovi had created precise notes to help her students remember what she had taught. The notes were the very thing Emerald had forgotten.

"What an idiot," Gold commented. "Who the hell forgets stuff they're staring at for two hours?"

"Haha, you're right about that. By the way, can you give me back the pen I lent you?" Red asked. Gold opened his bag to look for the object in question, but while he was searching for the pen he suddenly froze.

"What's wrong?" Rui asked curiously. Gold pulled his hand out of his bag, re-zipped it, slung it over his shoulder, turned around and started running.

"I forgot my notes as well! Sorry Senior Red, I'll give you back your pen later," Gold yelled as he dashed towards the classroom.

"Who's the idiot?" Silver muttered while the others laughed.

**Trainees' private floor (19:30)**

As usual, the group ate together in the living room exclusive to them. While eating, they were trying to come up with a plan for the weekend, as they did not have any sort of training on those two days.

"Oh yeah, when I was running back to get my notes, I ran into Sakata," Emerald said. "He gave me a map and said that we could go and explore some of the islands near the institute. The map's in my room, so let me go and get it." Moments later he returned with the map.

Everyone ignored Gold's pun and was observing the map Sakata gave Emerald. According to the map, they seemed to have quite a few choices, though they had no idea what to go for. Wes and Rui may have worked at the institute, but they had never been to any of the places mentioned in the map; as for Wally, Cheren and Bianca, they hadn't been long around enough to know about anywhere other than the institute.

"We can ask Sakata, Set or Jovi about it tomorrow. They should be able to recommend somewhere for us to spend the weekend, or at least tell us a bit about our choices," Wes suggested. "It's Thursday today, so we've got time." That was what everyone else decided to do.

**Main Building Battling Stadium (11:25)**

Sakata did not simply watch or instruct his students from the sidelines, he also took an active role in the training. He helped by having Pokemon battles with the trainees, or by having his Pokemon to demonstrate certain points he was trying to get across. The same could be said for Set: when he wasn't recording or analyzing something with his computer(s), he helped the trainees with their training physically.

"That's good. Your Serperior is powerful, but it needs to improve on its reaction speed. As for your Gigalith, it still hasn't mastered the move Stone Edge yet, but otherwise there's no problem," Sakata said to Cheren as the two recalled their Pokemon.

"Thanks for the advice. By the way, I've wanted to ask you about something," Cheren said in reply.

"Sure, fire straight away."

"We took a look at the map you gave Emerald, but we didn't have any idea where to go. Could you recommend somewhere?"

"That's a tough one. Let me think about it, and I'll mail you later," Sakata answered. "For now, go and find someone to battle." With that the issue was temporarily dropped.

**Trainees' Private Floor (18:20)**

Yellow and White were using the television in the living room. Set had given them videos of themselves during combat training. He suggested the two Dexholders to watch and study the recordings so that they could reflect on how they battled and find areas which they could improve upon.

"Hardworking, aren't you?" The two female Dexholders turned to find that it was Green who spoke the sentence.

"Oh, Senior Green! Since we have some free time on our hands, White and I decided to watch the recordings Set gave us," Yellow answered.

"It feels kind of bad that we're so much weaker than everyone else," White said. "And we've got two years here anyway, so might as well as make the best out of it."

"In that case, allow me to help," Green said as he sat next to Yellow. Being much more experienced than his juniors, Green was able to point out comparably subtle things that they failed to notice, and was able to give them decent advice on how to improve on their shortcomings.

Aside from the bedrooms, the living room and the kitchen, there was also a library, a computer room, and a large, empty room with reinforced walls that could be used for battling or training. There were also showering stalls divided for each gender.

The computer room was usually occupied by Gold, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, Black and occasionally Silver. The sole reason they used the computers in the room was for entertainment purposes – that is to say, either to play online games or to watch videos. If you were to wait outside the computer room long enough, you might be able to hear sudden, random shouting, such as "YOU BOUGHT THE WRONG ITEM!" or "PUSH MID!" At any rate, most of them were incomprehensive lines.

The library on the other hand was a silent place. Although Platinum was the only one who used it on a daily basis, others would use it when they needed information, or if they felt like killing time reading.

Wanting to search for a specific book, Cheren entered the library to find Crystal and Platinum reading. He looked for the book on his mind, found it and sat opposite the two female Dexholders. Noticing their new companion, they greeted and conversed with him.

"Oh yeah, take a look at this," Cheren said, handing his two friends his Pokegear. There was an e-mail displayed on the Pokegear, and this was what it said:

Dear Cheren,

Just like I promised, I've written you a list of recommendations. North-west from here is the Lush Island, which is full of Pokemon and berries from all five major regions, so you can go there if you want to train or catch new Pokemon. To the south of the institute is a village called the Spring Village. Its name came from the fact that it's always springtime in the village, and that the village has the best hot springs in the world. You can go and peek on naked girls if you feel like it, haha! (Crystal and Platinum frowned visibly at this) There's also a chain of islands to the east, we call them the Chain Cities. The place's pretty much as the name suggests: cities constructed on islands that are linked to each other. One of the Chain Cities has a huge beach, so if you want to have some fun, you guys can go there. Those three are your best choices, since the other islands aren't any special. Hope you can come up with something!

Cheers,

Sakata

"I plan to show this to everyone else. Hopefully we'll be able to reach a conclusion tonight," Cheren said.

**Trainees' Private Floor (19:50)**

"We're definitely going to the Chain Islands!" Gold declared. Everyone had read Sakata's e-mail, and the Breeder was the first to speak.

"Why are you so enthusiastic about it?" Crystal asked.

"The beach, the beach! There's no fun if you don't go there," Gold answered.

'_Oh really, I bet he just has some perverted thoughts in mind,'_ Crystal thought.

"It has been a while since we've been to a beach," Pearl said. "It looks like a good idea."

"Yeah, I agree," Diamond said. "It'll be nice to have fun with everyone."

"A relaxing day at the beach seems good," White commented. "I'd like to go." In the end everyone agreed that they would all go to the beach for the weekend.

**? (Time unknown)**

"So this is where they've been taken to, huh? Guess I should infiltrate." The person who spoke was a grown-up man who had brown hair, wore a pair of framed glasses, a green shirt, brown trousers and strangely, a white lab coat over his shirt.

"You know, I'm envious of Sakata. When he was infiltrating that base that time, he had Key with him and Set providing technical backup. It sucks when I have to do this alone," he moaned. "At any rate, my target's those two Pokemon, huh? Time to wreck shit or eat shit, haha."

**Author's Note: This chapter is where Michael makes his debut. Michael is the protagonist of the game Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. As for the guy in the end of this chapter, he is the guy at the end of chapter 4 (final prologue). As for who he really is, you'll soon find out.**


	10. Krane the mysterious man

**Author's Note: It took me a lot of effort, but I finally managed to finish this chapter before school starts. I guess I was on fire after writing the last chapter, haha. This chapter is very important in terms of the plot.**

**? (Time unknown)**

"The intruder is on the second floor and is approaching stairs NO.2. Do not let him escape!" Hearing the announcement, said man cursed whoever was after him and ran as fast as he could while clutching the two Pokeballs he stole.

He almost made it to the stairs when he was intercepted by an enemy who had a Shellder and a Parasect.

Swearing, the brown-haired man rushed towards his adversaries. He nimbly evaded the attacks fired from the Shellder and Parasect, and aimed a kick at the Shellder. He was lucky that the Pokemon was unable to close its shell in time, or else his foot would have been broken. The successful kick managed to inflict a reasonable amount of pain on the Shellder, causing it to flip over and shut its shell. Taking advantage of his enemy's surprise the man slammed into the enemy. This knocked his enemy off balance, and seizing the opportunity the man grabbed his enemy. The man used his captive as a human shield to block against the Parasect's attack, and then shoved his enemy towards the Parasect, causing trainer to land on Pokemon.

It wasn't as if he didn't have any Pokemon, but the man wanted to conserve their strength for later.

Having dealt with his enemy, the man quickly ran towards the stairs. But he did not go downstairs where the entrance was. He predicted that his enemies would have assembled on the first and ground floors, and he did not want to waste his time and strength dealing with them. Instead he ran up to the fourth floor, running all the way to one of the sides of the building. Once he reached where he wanted to go, he threw a grenade that blew a hole in the wall that lead outside.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" The man yelled as he released and hopped onto his Gliscor. He had a head start, and his Gliscor was extremely fast, so he managed to escape without any problems.

Once he had gotten a safe distance away, the man loosened up and gave a huge sigh. He examined the two Pokeballs he stole, and the Pokemon were still the same as they were when he first found them – drugged unconscious, but most definitely alive. The night was dark and cool, the moon being the only thing illuminating the sky.

After a short while the Gliscor had reached its destination, swooping down from the sky and stopping in front of a wooden house which was the only manmade structure in the area. The man jumped off, recalled his Gliscor and ran into the house.

**Pokemon Research Institute (Past midnight)**

Sakata stared at the television screen with intense concentration. His heart skipped a beat, and a drop of sweat slid down his face as he watched the intense combat showed on the television screen.

Suddenly, his Pokegear started ringing, and this greatly startled Sakata. He jumped, shifting to a standing position and causing the bowl of popcorn on his lap to fall, littering the floor with the yellowish food.

"Son of a bitch, no one interrupts me when I'm watching anime!" Sakata cursed as he reached for his ringing Pokegear. Needless to say, the researcher was quite indignant.

"Hello? Oh, it's you." Hearing who it was, Sakata's anger vanished immediately and his voice became serious. "Was the rescue a success?"

"…!"

"Perfect. I leave the rest of the mission to you, so don't fucking screw up."

"…, …?"

"I'll only tell you everything if you make it out alive. I don't talk to dead people," Sakata harshly answered.

"…"

"Good. If you couldn't even do that much, I wouldn't have helped you in the first place."

"…!...?"

"It was a joke. You should be, because **Cipher** may send someone to attack your wooden house anytime." With that ominous sentence hanging, Sakata cut the call.

**Wooden house (Past midnight)**

"HOLY LUGIA!" Barely dodging the Dragon Claw aimed at him, the man stumbled backwards a few steps. He was looking at the angry Pokemon right in the eye, and as the Pokemon advanced towards him with malice intentions the man fearfully retreated, until his back was against the wall.

After the man had returned to his hut, he quickly released the two Pokemon he rescued and attached them to a series of wires that were connected to complicated devices. This was to remove the effects of whatever drugs that were administered to them, as well as heal their wounds. Once he had completed the task, the man quickly phoned his accomplice. As if right on cue, the moment the call was cut he felt something move behind him, and turned to see an angry Latios aim a powerful slash at him.

Right now the man was in a very difficult situation: an extremely pissed off legendary Pokemon wanted to kill him, and he couldn't really do anything. Running or any attempts to defend would no doubt provoke the Latios, and the last thing the man wanted was a Luster Purge in his face. Therefore, the man slowly raised his hands and put them on his head, showing that he had no plans to cause any harm to the Eon Pokemon.

Latios did not move any further, and the man was relieved about this. He saw this as progress, and decided to try explaining his motives. He knew that the Eon Pokemon could detect emotions and understand human speech, so it should be able to understand what he was about to say and tell that they were not lies.

"I'm not your enemy, Latios. Look, a few days ago you guys got kidnapped by a bunch of weirdos, right? After you guys got captured, those people transported you to one of their bases with evil intentions in mind. I knew I had to do something before they moved you to their main base, so I went to rescue you and your sister, and believe me, that wasn't pleasant, though in the end it worked out," the man briefly explained. He noticed that the Latios still looked skeptical, but at least it didn't look angry.

"Okay, and after that I escaped all the way to here. You see those machines over there? Yeah, the ones Latias' attached to. Those things get rid of the effects of the drugs your kidnappers used on you two, as well as heal injuries. To simply put, I was using those machines to treat you. I'm a good guy, alright?" The man continued to explain. He was glad to see that the Latios was beginning to trust him now.

Suddenly, the man heard a voice in his head asking him who he was, and why did he save the legendary Pokemon. He deduced that it was Latios using telepathy, and with a smile answered the question.

"We both don't want excellent Pokemon such as you and your sister being abused by some evil organization, yes? As for me, I'm one of the people who are trying to stop the bad guys from doing what they want. I am a professor from the Orre region, and I go by the name Krane," Professor Krane introduced himself.

Judging by his emotions, Latios could tell that everything Krane had been saying was true, and could not sense any other humans in the area. Also, Krane was the only person Latios knew who seemed to have an idea of what was going on, so the Eon Pokemon decided to trust the self-proclaimed professor, at least for now.

"Perfect! I'm overjoyed that you believe me. Now, let me reattach you to the wires; you still aren't fully healed yet." Latios obeyed and allowed Krane to do so. "That's very good. You seem to have a lot of questions, so I suppose I should start explaining everything. Oh, Latias seems to be waking up, so I guess she can listen as well."

**? (Past midnight)**

The leader of the 100-man squad that had captured Latias and Latios was waiting impatiently. After he had reported Krane's successful intrusion to his boss, he was told that one of the higher ups in the organization had been dispatched to deal with the issue.

Moments later, one of his men entered his room. "Lord Eldes," he said, addressing the leader. "Master Nascour has arrived."

**Krane's wooden house (Past midnight)**

Astounded was the only way to describe how the Eon duo was feeling. The story Krane had told them was so bewildering and unbelievable it seemed to be something from – no, it was too unreal to even be something from a fairy tale. But the professor had evidence to back up his claims, and the two Pokemon could sense that he wasn't lying. They had also experienced part of what Krane had claimed first hand, and they could not dismiss their savior's story as untrue.

"The situation is grave indeed," Latios commented (using telepathy). "But what are we going to do now?"

"Actually, there's a bit of a problem concerning the two of you," Krane replied. The two Eon Pokemon looked at him with questioning eyes, and this was his cue to continue. "Since you two are on the top of our enemies' list, they have developed means to track you down. That is to say, unless we do something about you guys, we'll never get a moment of rest."

"Then what should we do?" Latias asked worriedly (using telepathy as well).

"There's nothing else for it. I will have to **erase your presences**," Krane said with a pained expression. Hearing what he had planned, both Latias and Latios could only stare at him with a shocked expression.

"My apologies, but this is the best I can come up with. For this to work, I'll need your full cooperation. This might sound ridiculous, but I'll need you two to sacrifice your existence as legendary Pokemon, all of your powers as well as your memories."

Their expressions were completely as he had predicted, and it was perfectly understandable. But Krane was desperate, and he knew that there wasn't any other way.

"Please! This is the only chance the three of us got!" Krane had gotten on to his knees and was begging the two Pokemon. "Even now, someone may have been sent to attack us. I don't know how long I can last, but even if I have to die, I don't want any other casualties aside from me!"

Latias and Latios did not fully understand what Krane was talking about, but Krane's raw, sincere emotions told them all they needed to know.

"We'll do it," both of them said with determination.

A minute later, the Eon duo was again attached to a series of wires, although they were connected to a completely different machine. Krane had just finished entering the program into said machine, and walked over to a lever.

"This is it, guys. Any last words?" Krane asked, hands on the lever.

"You said that the Dexholders will be part of this whole mess in the future, right?" Latias asked telepathically. Krane nodded. "In that case, please tell Emerald that it was fun knowing him." Krane gave Latias a reassuring smile and assured her that he would do so.

Just then, Krane's alarm device started ringing, and the two legendary Pokemon could sense a horrifying presence. Cursing, Krane pulled the lever and rushed out of his house to deal with the threat.

"So the rat finally shows itself." Upon exiting the house Krane was confronted with a not-so-pretty sight. Standing opposite him was a man who had long, white hair that stuck out in different directions. The man wore dark, purplish clothing and the professor recognized him as the Cipher Admin Nascour.

"You came alone? What happened to Eldes and his men?" Krane asked.

"Do you really think that you are in the position to ask about others?" Nascour sneered. "You are standing in front of hell's gates, and this will be your last battle. No, it will not even be a battle. It will be a one-sided slaughter."

"You know, I did manage to beat Eldes and his followers. I'm really not that weak, so it's pretty bad to underestimate me," Krane replied.

"He only loss because the two Eon Pokemon had used up nearly all of his resources," Nascour answered. "But that does not matter. You should know that defying me is futile, so why not hand over Latias and Latios? I may consider ending your life in a less painful way."

"Fuck off, medusa. I may not have a mirror, but my Pokemon know Mirror Move," Krane taunted. Krane knew that this was a huge blow to someone as prideful as Nascour, and that the man would start attacking now.

As he predicted, Nascour was outraged. Both the Cipher Admin and the Professor released their party of Pokemon, and a terrible battle began.

"Die, traitor," Nascour growled.

Krane was very lucky that Nascour was not using his strongest Pokemon, or he would have been beaten in less than a minute. It was due to the fact that Nascour's A-team was so powerful he would run the risk of his Pokemon accidentally destroying the wooden house and fatally wounding the Eon duo in the process. However the Pokemon Nascour currently commanded were by no means pushovers, and they were giving Krane a hard time.

On the other hand, the professor was not to be underestimated. He was an unparalleled strategist, and his Pokemon were among the pinnacle of the elite. Both he and his Pokemon were veterans, and were able to fight Nascour's Pokemon toe to toe.

A few minutes had passed, and both trainers' six Pokemon were still locked in a vicious struggle. This was not the first time Krane had battled Nascour, and the man was as ruthless and powerful a trainer as he remembered. Krane knew that if the battle went on for too long, he would quickly lose the advantage.

"If you had not betrayed us, things would not have to come to this," Nascour said. "Failing to see the beauty of our plan – Cipher's grand **Shadow Pokemon **plan was your failure. You abandoned Cipher and joined hands with other meager, worthless fools who dream of justice. We had initially thought that you possessed intellect, but in the end you made the wrong choice, and you will die for that."

Having participated in the Shadow Pokemon plan in the past, the professor knew all about it. Shadow Pokemon were once normal Pokemon that had their emotions, consciousness and memories removed from them, turning them into mere fighting machines for an evil organization called Cipher. The creation of Shadow Pokemon was known as 'artificially sealing the door to their hearts'.

Shadow Pokemon were capable of using Shadow moves, normal attacks that were modified and changed to become more powerful. Also, Shadow Pokemon were created to be much stronger both in terms of offense and defense compared to other Pokemon, which made them extremely hard to deal with.

Another minute passed by, and Krane was in grave danger. Three of his Pokemon had been knocked out cold, and his other three were on the brink of collapse. As for Nascour, his six Shadow Pokemon were in a much better situation, and anyone could see that there was no hope for the professor.

"Does this battle not prove it all? My Shadow Pokemon have triumphed in this meaningless fight, while your normal, vain Pokemon have fallen," Nascour said.

"That may be true," Krane said slowly. "You've won this battle. However, in the end I'm the winner." Hearing this, Nascour laughed. It was a cold, heartless laugh.

"How are you the winner? Observe! My Pokemon will crush the rest of your team in less than a minute. You have nowhere to hide, and the Eon Pokemon you guard so dearly are unable to escape. What can you do but accept death?" Nascour asked.

"Kindly look at your radar for me and see if you can still find Latias or Latios," Krane requested. For some reason Nascour was slightly unsettled by this, though he did not show it. To his horror and anger, when he had pulled out his radar, the machine had failed to detect the Eon duo.

"A bit of a trick," Krane explained. "Now no radar can find those two anymore, and I've transported them away from here. They won't be caught again."

"KRANE, YOU BASTARD!" In a fit of rage, Nascour was about to order his Pokemon to attack, but Krane's Gliscor was faster. It trapped Nascour and his Pokemon in a powerful sandstorm, effectively stunning the Cipher Admin for a few seconds. By the time Nascour's Pokemon destroyed the sandstorm, Krane and his Pokemon were gone.

**? (Past midnight)**

"Holy Arceus, that was rough. If it weren't for the teleport devices I installed beforehand, I never would have gotten away," Krane moaned. "I should give Sakata a call, but my main priority would be to look for Latias and Latios. Wait, I should stop calling them Latias and Latios. After all, the Eon duo no longer exists," Krane spoke to no one in particular. "Let's see… they shouldn't be too far away from here… ah, there they are. Ho! That's an interesting result. Looks like both of them are still unconscious. In the meantime, let's come up with names for their new identity…"

**Author's Note: Prof. Krane and Eldes are characters from Pokemon XD, while Nascour is a character from Pokemon Colosseum. Cipher is the name of the evil team in the games Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD. Thanks for reading**


End file.
